Kuwait Financial Centre called Markaz said that it had repaid all of its $100 million bonds issued in July 2007 on the specified maturity date which is today July 5th, 2012.
Markaz issued these five-year bonds in 2007 with a Floating Rate Notes of 110 basis points over LIBOR paid quarterly. With this issue, Markaz was the first non-UAE company to list a conventional bond on Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX).
“Markaz’s ability to timely honor its financial obligations despite the credit complications in the regional and global investment climate is a testament of the company’s strong financial position. This is due to the company’s compliance with prudent fiscal policies that maintained sufficient liquidity levels yielding the proper balance of asset and liability maturities. In addition, Markaz’s dynamic and well-researched investment strategy has enabled the company to pinpoint rewarding investment opportunities. All of that plus the sound governance system adopted by Markaz have enabled the company to sustain a credit rating of BBB,” Manaf Alhajeri, Markaz Chief Executive Officer said.
“Markaz is keen on maintaining a strong relation based on compliance and trust with the capital market as it is one of the main financing sources for the company along with international and local banks. The strength of this relation materialized by investors’ interest in our 2007 USD bonds as the issue was 27% oversubscribed, with about 70% being allocated to investors in the region and 30% to investors elsewhere. The same applies for Markaz KD 22 million bonds which were issued in 2011 with a subscription coverage reaching 145%,” Alhajeri, added.
“Despite the harsh conditions in the investment and financial environment since the 2008 crisis, Markaz has been able to sustain sufficient liquidity levels by lowering short-term debts during 2009 from KD 23 million to KD 4 million and then repaying it all by the end of 2011. By the end of 2011 and the Q1 of 2012, Markaz net-debt to equity ratio was at 36.4%. This high level of liquidity will enable Markaz to cease investment opportunities in different areas such as real estate in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and debt tools in MENA and the US as well as other opportunities arising from the financial crisis,” Ali Khalil, Markaz Chief Operation Officer, said.