DOHA: State-controlled Qatar Telecommunications Co (Qtel) on Thursday said its $1.5 billion bond sale was more than ten times oversubscribed, as bids exceeded $15 billion. The company this week launched a $500 million six-year bond and a $1 billion 10-year bond priced at 3.375 percent and 4.75 percent respectively. Appetite for bond issues from the fast-growing tiny Gulf Arab state has been strong helped by increased demand for emerging market bond sales. Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) launched a $750 million Islamic bond on Sept. 30 with HSBC, Credit Suisse and QInvest as lead managers. The net proceeds of the sale will be used for general corporate purposes, including refinancing existing indebtedness, the company said in a statement. Qtel began a road show for the benchmark-sized dollar bond earlier this week, with six banks mandated to manage the sale. Qatar International Finance Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of state-owned telecoms services provider Qtel, mandated Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Qatar National Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered, and Mitsubishi UFJ for the issue. In August, rating agency Moody's downgraded Qtel by one notch to A2 from A1 citing a change in its view on government support assumptions for government-related issuers.
