(Bloomberg) -- Oman hired banks including Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc to help arrange an international sale of Islamic bonds, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The country also mandated Dubai Islamic Bank and Alizz Islamic Bank, and may add more institutions for the dollar-denominated sukuk offering, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The oil producer that's not an OPEC member may sell at least $500 million as early as this quarter.
Oman, which raised $5 billion through a three-part sale of dollar bonds in February, is among governments across the six-nation Gulf Corporation Council tapping the debt markets to help offset the impact of a drop in crude prices. Saudi Arabia has hired Citigroup, HSBC and JPMorgan to help arrange the sale of dollar sukuk in the first half, people familiar with the matter said this week.
The yield on the government's 2027 bonds rose 1.5 basis points to 4.85 percent at 4:47 p.m. in Dubai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Oman is rated third-lowest investment grade by Moody's Investors Service and one level above junk by S&P Global Ratings.
Calls to Oman's finance ministry weren't returned. JPMorgan, HSBC and Dubai Islamic Bank declined to comment, while Alizz, Citi and Standard Chartered didn't respond to emails seeking comments.
To contact the reporters on this story: Archana Narayanan in Dubai at anarayanan16@bloomberg.net, Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Shaji Mathew, Claudia Maedler
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