Qatar Sovereign Bond Successful - US$7 billion + Long Tenor

Qatar's sovereign bond offering was a roaring success:

1. US$3.5 billion Maturity 2015 Margin 185bps
2. US$2.5 billion Maturity 2020 Margin 195bps
3. US$1.0 billion Maturity 2040 Margin 215bps

Note the 30 year maturity on the last tranche.

There have been some press reports which have noted that this bond is now the largest US$ bond issuance by an emerging market investor as it surpassed the US$6.1 billion in bonds issued by the PRC's Ministry of Railways back in November 2007.

But, let's look at the details of that issue to see that more than size matters with Qatar.

The PRC issue consisted of and were priced as follows:

1. US$1.2 billion 7 year bonds at 5.38% (fixed rate)
2. US$3.5 billion 10 year bonds at 5.6% (fixed rate)
3. US$1.4 billion 15 year bonds at 5.75% (also fixed)

Much longer tenors.