Crédit Agricole leads green Bond for First Abu Dhabi Bank

FAB is a regular issuer in the bond markets and had already tapped the market twice in 2023 and is rated Aa3 / AA- / AA- by Moody's, S&P and Fitch. The bond was priced off their $20bn EMTN Programme.

Markets had been going through a volatile period in the lead up to the issuance due to uncertainties around the US reaching its debt ceiling and not being able to honour its obligations. FAB managed to successfully navigate these challenging conditions and price the transaction via an intraday execution which mitigated market risk.

The orderbook peaked in excess of USD1.4bn, allowing FAB to upsize the issuance to $600mn. The orderbook was well distributed geographically, with 85% allocated to investors outside the Middle East and fund managers taking the largest share of the bonds.