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Bahrain’s Nogaholding plans new dollar sukuk 

Construction, Construction Crane, Machine Bahrain News Agency
Major fossil fuel producers Saudi Arabia, Russia and China oppose the goal of tripling renewable energy capacity this decade

Bahrain’s state oil holding firm, Nogaholding, is planning a sale of US dollar-denominated Islamic bonds and has offered to tender existing notes for cash, a bank document and filing showed.

The tender offer is conditional on the completion of the new debt sale, in which nogaholding will offer sukuk maturing in seven or 10 years.

Nogaholding will buy “any and all of” its $750 million bonds that were issued in 2018, subject to conditions, the filing said.

The tender offer and new issuance are aimed at managing the firm’s balance sheet and maturity profiles, the filing said.

For the new sukuk issue, Bank ABC, Citi, FAB, HSBC, JPMorgan and National Bank of Bahrain will arrange investor calls, including a global investor call on Monday, the bank document on the planned debt sale showed.

Bondholders have until May 22 to tender their paper. Pricing and allocation of the new bonds is expected before then, the filing on the tender offer said.

Nogaholding made a net profit of $1.059 billion last year after $466 million in 2021 and a net loss of $130 million in 2020, according to an investor presentation.

The company has hired Boston Consulting Group to help develop a national energy strategy for Bahrain and an operational strategy for nogaholding.

In November, nogaholding CEO Mark Thomas told Reuters those strategies were likely to be decided in six months, with implementation to begin a year later.

“Junk”-rated Bahrain, a small non-Opec oil producer, is one of the most indebted countries in the region. High oil prices last year helped bring its fiscal deficit down 81.3 percent to $474 million, the investor presentation showed.