Record-breaking debt level issued in Middle East

Debt issuance in the Middle East in the first nine months of the year was worth nearly $44 billion, an increase of 75% compared with the corresponding period in 2015.

The remarkable rise in debt value was due in part to a “record-breaking second quarter,” said Nadim Najjar, regional managing director for Thomson Reuters, which compiled the data.

Indeed, he said the period was “the strongest first nine months for debt capital market issuance since records began in 1980”.

Qatar was the most active at issuing debt during the nine months, accounting for 36% of debt issued, followed by the UAE and Oman.

The period was a relatively busy one for takeover deals too. The value of announced mergers and acquisitions transactions involving Middle Eastern firms exceeded $37 billion in the nine-month period, a rise of 19% compared with the same period in 2015, according to Thomson Reuters.

However, there was a mere $1.5 billion of equity and equity-related issuance in the Middle East in the first nine months of the year, barely a quarter of the sum seen in the same period in 2015.

©2016 funds global mena

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