Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), a master developer of major cultural, residential and tourism destinations in Abu Dhabi, said its debut launch of $1 billion bond was a major success and attracted substantial interest from global investors.

The bond represented its inaugural issuance under the $3 billion Global Medium Term Note (GMTN) Programme.

The issue of notes attracted substantial interest from global investors, with a total order book exceeding $6 billion from approximately 300 investors. The final allocation of TDIC's $1 billion five year issue was priced at 390 bps over US Treasuries.

Commenting on the bonds, Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman of TDIC, stated: "TDIC are extremely pleased with the considerable interest from investors globally in TDIC's inaugural note issuance. Such interest has resulted in the notes being significantly oversubscribed and have enabled the pricing of such notes to be set at attractive levels."

"In line with Abu Dhabi's 2030 economic plan, TDIC has set a realistic long-term vision to create investment partnerships, which will support Abu Dhabi's evolution into a world-class tourist destination,"  Sheikh Sultan explained.

This bond issue is the first drawdown under TDIC's $3 billion GMTN Programme, the proceeds of which will be used for general corporate funding purposes.

TDIC's bond issue pays a 6.50 per cent coupon, with a re-offer price of 99.668, yielding 6.579 per cent, equivalent to a spread of 390 bps over US Treasuries.

TDIC's bonds, which mature in July 2014 were allocated as follows:- US investors received 30 per cent of the notes, European investors got 36 per cent, while 23 per cent of the notes was allocated to the Middle East and 11 percent to Asia.

The notes were offered by a syndicate of Arrangers and Bookrunners, namely BNP Paribas, Citi, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank.

These arrangers and bookrunners together with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi were mandated to act as joint lead managers.

Allied Investment Partners acted as the General Financial Adviser to TDIC. Lee Tabler, CEO of TDIC, highlighted TDIC's ambitions in line with Abu Dhabi's long-term economic strategy.

"TDIC has emerged as a leader in the emirate's transformation and is helping to realise the emirate's considerable tourism potential and strategic goals of delivering 2.7 million hotel guests per annum by 2012."

"A key element of Abu Dhabi's 2030 economic plan is for the emirate to become the cultural capital of the Middle East and through TDIC's key projects, such as Saadiyat Island, we are supporting the efforts to achieve this," he added.

Earlier this year, TDIC was assigned AA status by three major credit ratings agencies, Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, which accredited TDIC with high investment grade ratings - Aa2, AA, and AA respectively.

The New York-based Moody's Investors Service assigned a foreign currency rating of Aa2 with a stable outlook to the Programme.

Both Fitch and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services assigned "AA" long term credit ratings to TDIC's programme. This is in line with TDIC's ratings, which were assigned in March 2009 with a stable outlook. TDIC's issuer ratings are aligned with those of the government.-TradeArabia News Service