The Sultanate of Oman intends to issue dollar-denominated bonds to raise between three and four billion dollars, in an effort to boost the economy affected by low oil prices.
According to Reuters, the deal covers a temporary loan of two billion dollars obtained by Oman last month and gives it additional financing in what will be the Sultanate's first entry into the global bond market this year. / p>
all of the major credit rating agencies classify Oman, a relatively small oil producer burdened with high levels of debt, at a high level of risk. The sultanate said this month that it intends to pursue domestic and international debt markets without disclosing how much money it intends to raise from investors abroad.
two informed sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said the bonds would be arranged by some banks that provided the temporary loan of $ 2 billion.
one said it would be a deal in September.
and earlier, Refinitiv's LBC Fixed Income News service reported that the banks offering the temporary loan are First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC and Standard. Chartered
The Omani Ministry of Finance has yet to respond to a request for comment.
The issue comes amid a wave of debt deals as Gulf companies and governments benefit from lower interest rates globally to counter the slowdown caused by the Corona pandemic.
Oman announced in January that it intended to raise about five billion dollars through external and domestic borrowing to cover most of the deficit this year. But that was before the Corona pandemic and the decline in oil prices, which strengthened pressure on state coffers.
and since then, Fitch Ratings has twice downgraded Oman's sovereign rating twice, and the International Monetary Fund's estimates revealed that the fiscal deficit could exceed double and reach 16.9 percent of GDP Compared with a deficit of seven percent last year.
Fitch said the next three years will be a critical test of the funding resilience Oman has shown in the past.
(Amazon fun knowledge)
