Bonds… Corporate Bonds – Debt trading comes on strong in region

The growth of bond issuance in Arab markets, includingconventional and Islamic paper, has taken off in 2006-2007.Figures circulated by the financial industry say that bondissuance by GCC corporations reached $18.2 billion in 2006,compared with less than $2 billion in 2003. In total, GCCbond issuance surpassed $40 billion last year, comprisingsovereign, banking, project finance and corporate issues aswell as shariah-compliant issues. The increase of 2006 was exceptional because numbers wereinflated by some very large issues from the UAE, namely aconventional bond by Abu Dhabi energy company Taqa worth$3.5 billion and by two similar-sized shariah-compliantissues from real estate developers Nakheel and from Dubai’sPorts, Customs, and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC), PhilippLotter, a senior credit officer of international ratingsagency Moody’s Investor Services, told Executive. Lotter authored a study that forecasts 2007 to be anotherextraordinary growth year, with issuance of corporate bondsin the GCC to at least double by end of December and withoutrunning out