Gulf borrowers lean on Chinese lenders for scale and cheaper, longer-dated money

Chinese lenders are back in size across the Gulf, on the heels of QatarEnergy’s USD 3 bn facility from four Chinese banks. They offer large commitments, competitive borrowing costs, and longer repayment periods even through regional disruption, Natixis’ Alicia Garcia Herrero tells us.

Our friends at Mashreq raised CNH 1 bn in their first Dim Sum bond, pricing 45 bps inside guidance. The three-year senior unsecured notes carry a 2.50% coupon, from initial guidance in the 2.95% area, according to a press release. Orders from regional and international investors peaked at CNY 2.3 bn, more than 2x the deal. The paper lists on both Nasdaq Dubai and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Mashreq announced the issuance on 13 October and ran a one-day virtual marketing exercise, a two-day turnaround it says held pricing through a volatile market.

ADVISORS- Bank of China, China International Capital Corporation, China Securities, Guotai Junan International, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Standard Chartered were joint lead managers and bookrunners.

FAB has issued and settled AED 1 bn of three-year digitally native green notes at 5.75%, maturing in October 2029, through Euroclear’s distributed-ledger Digital Financial Market Infrastructure, per a statement. FAB calls it the first digital green bond out of MENA, with proceeds going to projects with environmental or climate-related benefits.

MNT-Halan closed subscriptions yesterday 16x covered, on the biggest order book the EGX has seen in years. Retail and institutional investors put in EGP 125.9 bn (c. USD 2.4 bn) of orders against the EGP 7.84 bn on offer, according to our math on preliminary data from Thndr’s app — triple what this year’s other two listings, Gourmet and Korra Energi, drew between them.

Retail did most of the late work. Individuals covered their 48 mn-share slice 43.6x by yesterday’s close with some EGP 51.3 bn of orders, more than triple the 13.5x they had reached a day earlier. Institutions had already closed 11.2x covered on Tuesday at some EGP 74.6 bn.

What’s next: Banque du Caire, which filed on 11 October, now has a demand figure to be measured against.

Agility Global is selling all of its 65.12% of Tristar to India’s Aegis Logistics, 23 years after buying in for about USD 7 mn. The transaction values the Dubai energy logistics operator at USD 1.5 bn including debt and its equity at USD 882 mn, according to a disclosure (pdf). The Abu Dhabi-listed seller takes up to USD 581 mn in three installments — USD 425 mn at closing, USD 110 mn a year later, and USD 46 mn if agreed conditions are met. Aegis is also buying smaller holdings from Gulf Investment Corporation and Diamond Holdings, taking it to 89.8% of Tristar for USD 809 mn.

Tristar was turning over USD 13.5 mn when Agility bought it and booked USD 1.4 bn last year on USD 1.7 bn of assets. It was 27% of Agility’s revenue and 13% of its assets at end-1H 2026.

DAE is after USD 2.1 bn from mostly Asian banks. Dubai Aerospace Enterprise wants a seven-year loan for working capital, with Emirates NBD, Bank of China, OCBC, and China Construction Bank Asia arranging, Bloomberg reports. A USD tranche could price at 110 bps over SOFR and an AED tranche is guided at 95 bps over EIBOR.

It follows a step change in the fleet. DAE closed its USD 9 bn purchase of Macquarie AirFinance less than three months ago, making it the world’s third-largest aircraft lessor and adding commitments for nearly 150 aircraft with deliveries running into the 2030s. The new money adds to USD 4.4 bn of available liquidity at end-June, according to its 1H results.

QIA is concentrating its money in a handful of big manager relationships. No new fund transactions are “on the radar,” head of funds Mohsin Pirzada tells Semafor, and the USD 580 bn sovereign fund instead expects a “handful” of large platform arrangements with managers it has worked with for years, like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. It signed a USD 20 bn partnership with JPMorgan last month after setting a USD 25 bn investment target with Goldman in January, and today named Activate Capital the 13th venture firm in its USD 3 bn Fund of Funds.

The war “hasn’t impacted our progress,” Pirzada said. State revenue fell 42% in 1H 2026, per the Emir, and the IMF — which expected a contraction of about 6% when we looked at QIA’s strategy in June — now sees 15.6%. Iranian strikes on Ras Laffan took out about 17% of Qatar’s LNG capacity, and QatarEnergy says its expansion starts producing in 1H 2027.

Adia took a small anchor ticket in an Indian industrial equipment maker’s IPO. The fund put INR 149.5 mn (c. USD 1.7 mn) into Bonfiglioli Transmissions’ INR 25.34 bn (c. USD 286 mn) offering through its Monsoon vehicle — about 255k shares, or 1.97% of the anchor book — according to a bourse filing (pdf). The anchor book raised INR 7.59 bn in all, nearly 13 mn shares at INR 586, the top of the price band, with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Canada’s PSP Investments also in. It is the second Indian anchor book Adia has been in this week, after Zetwerk.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING

Tamimi Energy is preparing a Tadawul listing. Group CCO Yahya Balhareth said initial preparations are under way, with no CMA filing, timeline, or size yet, Argaam reports.

Foodics has taken a stake in Funding Souq, with neither the amount nor the size disclosed. The shariah-compliant SME financing platform, founded in 2020 by Martin Jaouni and regulated by SAMA and the DFSA, will lend to Foodics’ restaurant merchants and underwrite them on sales and performance data, Wamda says.

Morocco’s InnovInvest program has mobilized more than USD 70 mn of private capital for startups. The USD 50 mn World Bank-backed initiative, run through national financing agency Tamwilcom, seeded four VC funds and drew in the IFC and France’s Proparco alongside domestic private investors, the World Bank said. It is now being replicated across MENA and Pakistan in projects worth more than USD 500 mn.

Market Snapshot

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