Abu Dhabi, 31 March 2022: On 31 March 2022, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC (“FAB”), rated Aa3 by Moody’s, AA- by Standard & Poor’s and AA- by Fitch (all with stable outlook), priced the first-ever public Green Bond denominated in EURs from a MENA issuer. The EUR 500 million 5 year Bond was issued at Euro MS +70bps and a coupon of 1.625%.

This was FAB’s second public issuance in the Euro market after their debut Euro offering last year. Given the challenging market conditions, the deal was a great success by achieving FAB’s target size (EUR 500 million) as well as price objectives. FAB was able to attract high quality Euro investors including large central banks, SSAs and asset managers in addition to several large Green dedicated investor funds. This enabled FAB to tighten pricing by 15bps from initial price thoughts and price at EUR MS +70bps, which compares favourably to FAB’s USD funding levels when swapped back to USD.

The bond was executed as a Green Bond under FAB’s Sustainable Finance Framework reaffirming FAB’s commitment to sustainable financing in line with the UAE’s net zero 2050 strategic initiative and FAB’s commitment to the same.

Rula Al Qadi, Managing Director and Head of Group Funding at FAB, commented “Despite a very challenging backdrop in markets, we were able to achieve our price and size objectives with our highly successful Euro deal today. This is our second public Euro deal and the first ever Green Bond from a MENA issuer in the Euro market. FAB is proud to have played a pioneering role in this market given our commitment to net zero in line with the vision of the UAE. The deal was placed with high quality European investors which is testament to FAB’s credit standing amongst international investors.”