UAE’s Tabreed issues 7-year 2.5% bond for $500mn

UAE’s National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) has successfully raised $500 million (AED1.8 billion) through its 7-year, 2.5 percent coupon bond issuance.

Despite current global economic uncertainty, strong investor confidence in Tabreed’s solid credit fundamentals enabled the issue to oversubscribe by nearly 5 times at its initial size of $400 million with orders coming from around 140 high quality local and international investors.

Higher demand allowed Tabreed to tighten pricing significantly to achieve a final coupon of 2.5% and to increase the size of the final bond to US$500 million. The bond is rated BBB by Fitch and Baa3 by Moody’s, similar to the firm’s corporate ratings.

90 percent of the issue was received by international investors with significant representations from Europe (49 percent), Asia (21 percent) and offshore US funds accumulating 20 percent of the 7-year bond issue.

The bond will be listed on the London Stock Exchange, alongside Tabreed’s existing 2025 Sukuk.

“The success of the issuance is proof of the continued confidence in Tabreed and its ability to generate sustainable cash flows and returns. Our solid fundamentals and strong credit ratings have translated into unprecedented market appetite, and I am proud to say that this has enabled us to attract significantly oversubscribed demand from a diverse pool of investors. This is also a vote of confidence from investors in Tabreed’s future and the growth potential of the organization.”

Bader Saeed Al Lamki, Tabreed Chief Executive Officer, said, “The bond issuance, which was extremely well received by the market, is part of a long-term strategy and it enables us to further expand our operations with a focus on scalable growth. The global interest in Tabreed is a testament to its strong financial position, sound business model and leading position in the District Cooling industry.

While HSBC and JP Morgan served the firm as Joint Global Coordinators and Bookrunners for the issuance, the Commercial Bank of Dubai was the Joint Lead Manager on the issuance.

Tabreed

For over 22 years, Tabreed has been the partner of choice for organizations seeking environmentally friendly cooling solutions to support their sustainability goals and to reduce their overall energy consumption and carbon footprint.

With 83 District Cooling plants, Tabreed currently delivers over 1.342 million refrigeration tons to key projects, including iconic developments such as the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Opera, The Dubai Mall, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Al Maryah Island, Yas Island and Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Dubai Metro, the Bahrain Financial Harbour and the Jabal Omar Development in the Holy City of Mecca in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.