First Gulf Bank, one of the leading banks in the UAE, received an expected senior unsecured rating of F1 (EXP) from Fitch Ratings and a provisional (P) Prime-1 (P1) short-term local and foreign currency rating from Moody's Investors Services for its new $3 billion Euro-Commercial Paper (ECP) programme.

Fitch Ratings also assigned an A+/F1 rating to FGB's existing $1 billion Negotiable Certificate of Deposit (NCD) programme.

"FGB has launched its new Euro-Commercial Paper programme following our strategy to diversify the sources of funding. The programme will increase FGB's liquidity and will help in managing our short term liability profile. It will also provide access to a different pool of investors. The funding we will receive from this programme will be used for general corporate purposes", said Christopher Wilmot, Head of Treasury and Global Markets The bank's ECP issuance will have an original tenor up to one year, while the NCD issuance has an original maturity greater than 7 days. The debt instruments will be issued to institutional investors, namely Asset Managers, across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. They can also be denominated in most currencies with US$, Euro and GBP having the deepest liquidity.

The ECP programme comes as an addition to the bank's existing programmes, which include: Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme of US$ 5 billion, Sukuk Programme of $3.5 billion and Medium Term Note Programme of $2 billion.
Source: WAM