Gulf corporate bond sales expected to surge this year

Dubai

REMEMBER that flood of bond sales analysts said companies would unleash after Gulf governments tapped the market? It's probably happening in 2018, according to First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.

There are at least two risks driving companies and banks to the market. The first is a debt wall of about US$60 billion of syndicated loans and bonds due in 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The other is the threat of rising interest rates in the Gulf, where central banks typically follow monetary policy decisions in the US.