Six-month treasury bills
Alternative to local bank rates
Yield hungry investors have snapped up OR32 million ($83 million) in short-term Omani treasury bills.
The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) auctioned the six-month T-bills on Wednesday offering a coupon of 5 percent. The CBO said the offer was oversubscribed by more than 10 times.
Analysts said the rates on offer through the treasury bills are more attractive than those offered by local banks.
“The treasury bills are more attractive to investors because they get higher returns in the short term. Also, they come with the government’s guarantee,” Khalifa Jaidi, a retired financial adviser with Al Omaniya Financial Company, told AGBI.
Jaidi said that a lack of alternative investment choices has helped to swell domestic demand for Omani sovereign debt. Local banks currently offer interest rates of between 3 to 5 percent on 12-month fixed deposits.
Last week, Oman issued OR100 million in bonds, the second of 10 rial-denominated bond and sukuk sales planned for 2025.
These will range from OR50 million to OR100 million and will total OR750 million. The issue was oversubscribed 2.4 times and will pay a coupon of 4.6 percent annually.
Oman has rial-denominated bonds and sukuk totalling OR1.02 billion which will mature before the end of 2026, according to S&P Global data. The country also has $2.4 billion in dollar-denominated bonds maturing in June 2026.
