Qatar National Bank to pay 60 basis points margin for $3 billion loan

By Sandrine Bradley

LONDON (Reuters) - Qatar National Bank (QNB) (QNBK.QA) will pay a margin of around 60 basis points (bps) over Libor on its $3 billion (2 billion pounds), three-year unsecured term loan, one banker close to the deal said.

Barclays Bank and HSBC are acting as co-ordinators on the deal, with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and SMBC acting as initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.

The deal is QNB's biggest syndicated loan to date, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data and proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

The deal will be launched to all of QNB's relationship banks as well as a number of other banks, the banker said.

QNB could not be immediately contacted for comment.

QNB's loan is expected to be the first of a small wave of deals for Middle East banks in the first half of 2015, the banker said.

A handful of banks are looking to lock in the excess liquidity available in the market as loan pipelines remain thin across others areas in the CEEMEA region.

The 60 bps margin on QNB's loan will be reserved for only the top Middle East names.

“The 60 bps figure is at the tightest end of the pricing spectrum and smaller banks would expect to come outside of that figure,” said the banker.

QNB, the Gulf Arab states largest lender, was last in the market in 2012 when it raised a $1.8 billion, three-year loan that paid 100 bps over Libor.

(Editing by Christopher Mangham)