Business & Finance Club - Kuwait : Kuwait Projects Co. said it raised $500 million by selling 10-years bonds to gain access to long- term funds in the first global issue by a private company in the Middle East and North Africa this year.

The bonds received $1.8 billion in bids and were priced at 644.2 basis points over the U.S. dollar mid-swap rate and 647.3 basis points over similar-maturity U.S. Treasuries, Kuwait’s biggest privately-owned investment company known as Kipco said in an e-mailed statement today. The bonds were sold under Kipco’s $2 billion euro medium term note program and carry a fixed-rate coupon of 9.375 percent, it said.

The sale is “the first international bond issue by a private sector corporate from the Middle East and North Africa region in 2010, as well as the first US dollar denominated offering from a Kuwaiti institution since 2009,” Kipco said. The money will be “used to extend the company’s maturity profile and further diversify KIPCO’s investor base,” it said.

BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc managed the bond sale. The bonds are rated Baa2 by Moody’s Investors Service, its second-lowest investment grade score, Kipco said.

Companies in the six Arab countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, have raised $8.2 billion from bond sales so far this year compared with $15.5 billion from bond sales in the first- half of last year.