Sharjah hires banks for debut dollar sustainable bonds

The government of Sharjah in the UAE has hired banks to arrange a sale of dollar-denominated debut sustainable bonds, a bank document showed.

HSBC was hired as sole global coordinator and ESG structuring agent. It is joined by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Citi, Gulf International Bank, IMI-Intesa Sanpaolo, Invest Bank and SMBC Nikko as joint lead managers and bookrunners.

They will arrange investor meetings starting on Tuesday in Milan, in New York on Wednesday, in Boston on Thursday, and in London on Monday and Tuesday next week, the bank document showed.

An issuance of benchmark size, which typically means at least $500 million, with an expected tenor of 12 years will follow, subject to market conditions.

A roaring start to the year for debt issuance helped lift sovereign emerging market bond sales to a record $44 billion peak in January with investors keen to deploy piles of cash, according to data compiled by Morgan Stanley.

So far investment-grade-rated Saudi Arabia is the largest borrower, having sold $10 billion of dollar bonds this year.

Nearly $40 billion of debt sales came in the first half of the month when Hong Kong, Israel and Mexico all raced to issue debt early, with Colombia and Serbia soon following suit.