(Updates with Fitch rating)
By Yousef Saba
DUBAI, June 28 (Reuters) - Qatar Petroleum has hired a group
of banks to arrange a four-tranche issuance of U.S.
dollar-denominated bonds, a document showed, for what will be
its debut public bond sale months after it signed a contract to
boost its liquefied natural gas output.
The bond sale will comprise conventional tranches of five,
10 and 20 years, as well a 30-year Formosa portion, the document
from one of the banks on the deal and reviewed by Reuters
showed.
Formosa bonds are sold in Taiwan by foreign borrowers and
denominated in currencies other than the Taiwanese dollar.
The document did not give any indication on the size of the
deal but sources have previously told Reuters the planned debt
sale could raise up to $10 billion.
Qatar Petroleum (QP), one of the world's top liquefied
natural gas (LNG) suppliers, hired Citi and JPMorgan to
coordinate the issue.
They, along with BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank
, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, MUFG,
QNB Capital and Credit Suisse, will arrange
investor calls starting on Monday.
Fitch Ratings assigned QP a long-term issuer default rating
of AA- with a stable outlook on Monday, which it said was
"constrained by that of sole shareholder - Qatar (AA-/Stable) -
given strong links between the company and the sovereign".
"Fitch assesses the Standalone Credit Profile (SCP) of QP at
'aa+', which is supported by the large scale of its LNG
franchise, low production costs, large reserve base and
conservative leverage," Fitch said, adding QP operations' focus
on gas "makes it better placed for energy transition than other
oil and gas majors."
QP's fundraising comes as energy companies in the region
seek different means to raise cash after they were hurt last
year by the double shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and oil prices
collapsing.
QP signed a contract in February for the first phase of its
North Field LNG expansion project, which aims to boost Qatar's
LNG output by 40% a year by 2026.
Fitch said key constraints on QP's rating include completion
risk for large capital expenditure projects related to
increasing LNG production, as well as political risk.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba Editing by Kim Coghill and Mark
Potter)