DUBAI, March 17 (Reuters) – BBK, formerly known as Bank of
Bahrain and Kuwait, has slightly tightened price thoughts for a
five-year U.S. dollar bond offer of benchmark size which may
price on Tuesday, a document from lead managers showed.

The lender tightened guidance to 195 basis points plus/minus
5 bps over midswaps, the document showed, from initial guidance
set on Monday at around 200 bps.

BBK has returned to the market in its first debt issue since
2010 to refinance an existing $500 million bond maturing in
October.

Order books have grown to around $800 million, the document
showed.

The offer by Bahrain’s fourth-largest bank by assets is
being handled by BNP Paribas, HSBC and National Bank of Abu
Dhabi.

Rated BBB by Fitch, BBK is 32.1 percent owned by the
Bahraini government, with the Kuwait Investment Authority owning
an 18.7 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data.

(Reporting by Archana Narayanan; Editing by Andrew Torchia)