Qatar's central bank said on Wednesday it will raise its interest rates by 75 basis points as of Thursday, moving in parallel with the U.S. Federal Reserve's third straight hike of that size, Reuters reported. The central bank increased its lending rate to 4.5%, the deposit rate to 3.75% and the repo rate to 4.0%, the central bank said in a statement.
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Qatar’s government has approached international banks to explore refinancing more than $10 billion in debt that comes due next year, Reuters reported. Officials at the Ministry of Finance are in early talks with international banks for a potential syndicated loan or bond sale. No final decision has been made, the people said. The government may decide to refinance part of the debt or even shelve the plan since the country has financial flexibility, they said. A spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Finance said that the government didn’t have immediate plans to refinance debt.
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Qatar National Bank QPSC, the Middle East’s biggest lender, asked a U.S. court to order Eritrea to pay nearly $300 million of debt after the Horn of Africa nation refused to participate in two lawsuits, Bloomberg News reported. The Doha-based bank requested a judgment by default from a federal court in Washington on Friday after Eritrea failed to respond to the bank’s claim seeking to enforce a U.K. ruling in 2019. QNB alleges that President Isaias Afwerki’s government went to drastic lengths to avoid being served with key documents.
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The state energy company of Qatar wrapped up the biggest emerging-market bond sale this year, selling $12.5 billion of dollar bonds as it seeks to raise output of liquefied natural gas and cement its domination of the market, Bloomberg reported. The producer sold a four-part deal with tranches maturing in five, 10, 20 and 30 years, with the longest portion yielding 3.3%. The company’s last dollar sale was in 2006, when it raised $650 million. Investors placed around $40 billion of orders.
Ezdan Holding Group faces the risk of debt restructuring or default as the Qatari real estate developer is yet to obtain credit-lines to meet upcoming maturities, according to S&P Global Ratings, Bloomberg News reported. “Despite discussing payment option plans, the company is still in the negotiation stage of securing a committed credit line to address its significant upcoming debt maturities and amortization schedule,” according to the ratings agency. S&P cut Ezdan’s rating to CCC from B- with negative outlook. Ezdan’s $500 million senior unsecured sukuk matures on May 18.
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Qatar’s neighbors agreed Tuesday at a regional summit to set aside festering differences that had caused a destabilizing break among the U.S. allies and undermined a pressure campaign on Iran, but sidestepped efforts to resolve the sources of their repeated rifts, the Wall Street Journal reported. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt will reopen their airspace to Qatari jets, restore diplomatic ties with Doha and reverse all other actions taken since they cut relations in 2017.
Gulf Arab leaders signed a declaration on Tuesday to ease a rift with Qatar, following Saudi Arabia’s decision to end a 3 1/2-year embargo of the tiny energy-rich country that deeply divided regional U.S. security allies and frayed social ties across the Arabian Peninsula, the Associated Press reported. Saudi Arabia also said that it was restoring full diplomatic relations with Qatar, although it was not clear how soon the step would be followed by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, which had joined the kingdom in isolating the country over its regional policies.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia and its allies are expected to sign a deal on Tuesday designed to end a protracted feud that has split the Middle East and hampered U.S. efforts to isolate Iran, senior Trump administration officials said on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Under the deal, the U.S. officials said, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt are expected to officially end a blockade of Qatar they began in June 2017 when the countries accused Qatar’s leaders of supporting terrorism and aligning itself with Iran.
Banks from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and India risk losing millions of dollars due to their exposure to Finablr Plc, the foreign-exchange operator that’s preparing for potential insolvency, according to people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Qatar National Bank, Doha Bank, National Bank of Fujairah, Commercial Bank International and Bank of Baroda are still owed about $300 million by Finablr’s parent BRS Ventures, which is owned by Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, some of the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.
Qatar’s banks eased repayment terms on real-estate loans, according to the chief executive officer of Doha Bank QSC, after the Saudi Arabia-led standoff hurt property prices, Bloomberg News reported. “Cash flows have been redefined, debt has been restructured to see that debt-servicing capacity is not in danger in the coming days for real estate owners,” Raghavan Seetharaman said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday.