Standard Chartered is top Mena bond arranger as sales boom

Bond sales from the region have climbed 20% this year to $58b

For the first time since 2008, Standard Chartered is topping the list of bond sales arrangers in the Middle East and North Africa.

The emerging markets-focused lender climbed four places from 2017 and has already built up a substantial lead on the competition just four months into the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. JPMorgan Chase & Co, last year’s Mena league table leader, sits at No 5.

The variety of bond issues this year, including governments, companies, banks, Islamic issuers, high yield, private placements as well as sales in Taiwan and China, has suited Standard Chartered’s diverse product offering, Salman Ansari, the bank’s head of capital markets for Africa and the Middle East, said in an interview in Dubai.

Bond sales from the Mena region, which includes the two biggest Arab economies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have climbed 20 per cent this year to $58 billion (Dh213 billion) as governments sought to bridge budget deficits prices, and issuers attempted to beat an expected rise in interest rates. Sales climbed to a record $101 billion last year, led by Saudi Arabia, which raised $21.5 billion.

“Historically, we have seen issuance concentrated in one sector, while this year you have seen a broad spectrum of sectoral issuances across financial institutions, sovereigns and corporates,” Ansari said at the Dubai International Financial Centre.