Qtel to ask investors for $1 billion

Qatar Telecom is expected to announce an initial $1 billion tranche, as part of a larger $5 billion medium-term bond programme, the Financial Times has reported.

Tranche, a French word meaning ‘portion’, is used to describe a security that can be split up into smaller pieces then sold to investors.

"The meetings with potential investors have been positive," a source close to the operator said, though Qtel officials declined to comment.

The source revealed that the funds would be partially used to settle a revolving $600 million credit facility that falls in September as Qtel pushes forward with its goal of becoming one of the top 20 telecommunications providers in the world by 2020.

In March this year, Qtel successfully secured a $1.5 billion credit facility. At the time, Scott Barton, head of Global Banking & Markets MEA, RBS said that Qtel had "raised more than $10 billion in the international bank loan markets in just over two years."

The Financial Times report stated that overall debt issuance in the Middle East has risen more than 50% to reach $11.5 billion this year according to data provider Dealogic.

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