Banque Saudi Fransi sells $700 million in five-year bonds

DUBAI (Reuters) - Banque Saudi Fransi sold $700 million in five-year bonds on Wednesday in the first public dollar bonds out of the Gulf in nearly a month, a bank document showed.

The bonds were sold at 170 basis points (bps) over U.S. Treasuries (UST), tightened from initial guidance of around 195 bps after orders topped $3 billion.

The senior unsecured bonds are expected to be rated "A2" by Moody's and "BBB+" by Fitch.

Citi, JPMorgan, HSBC, Merrill Lynch International, Standard Chartered and Saudi Fransi Capital arranged the deal.

Dubai's Mashreqbank this week hired banks to arrange the sale of U.S. dollar-denominated 10-1/4 year Tier 2 bonds non-callable for 5-1/4 years.

Bond issuance from the oil-rich Gulf has plummeted this year amid expected national surpluses, rising interest rates and market volatility.

But some issuers have pounced on windows of relative calm in the markets to issue.

(Reporting by Yousef Saba in Dubai; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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