Doha Bank, Qatar's fifth-largest bank by market value, may delay its planned $500 million bond sale until 2012, the bank's chief executive said on Thursday.

'The local customer deposit rate is so cheap that there's no point in me borrowing,' Raghavan Seetharaman said in a phone interview.

'We have the luxury of time, so we're not rushing it through. Equity markets are recovering, credit default swaps are coming to terms. We will do it when the time is right, in terms of cost-effectiveness.'

In October, Doha Bank mandated Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan to arrange for a $500 million bond issue planned for January 2011.

The bank earlier this month posted a 15 per cent jump in first-quarter net profit amid higher customer deposits and net interest income.-Reuters