QNB, Qatar’s largest lender, has mandated Barclays Capital, Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered and its own unit, QNB Capital, to manage the roadshows beginning Feb 13, the bank said in a bourse statement.

Earlier this week, Abu Dhabi’s Dolphin Energy, majority-owned by investment fund Mubadala issued the first conventional bond from the region. The $1 billion 10-year bond priced at 5.5 percent and attracted orders of about $9 billion.

Benchmark bond offerings are typically at least $500 million in size.

QNB said any bond would be issued under its $7.5 billion bond program which it set up in August to fund its banking operations.

The lender is 50-percent owned by sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority and has been expanding abroad, with operations in Syria, Jordan, the UAE and Switzerland.  

It is currently in talks to acquire Turkey’s Denizbank.

In January, Qatar’s finance minister, who is also chairman of QNB, said the bank could buy the Turkish lender by year’s end if the “price is right.”

The business was expected to fetch up to $6 billion and would be QNB’s largest acquisition to date.

QNB also has a $1.85 billion five-year loan due for repayment in July, according to Thomson Reuters data. =