The move to proceed would be significant as the Nakheel Development debacle was said at the time to have severely damaged the chance of any new issues.

But seeing as NBAD was part of the Abu Dhabi injection into Dubai, investors may still view the bank as a solid offering. CB funds are also familiar with the bank that last issued US$545m of LT2 CBs in February 2008.

The Middle East was once seen as a growth market in CB terms, particularly for Barclays Capital, which under Doug Decker built significant market share when the region first opened.

Yet issuance stalled. CBs were often very bond-like and were sold on the basis of high coupons – or in the case of NBAD’s LT2 as a US dollar de-pegging play – but they attracted a good audience.

So why did they die and could NBAD prompt a revival?

The suggestion of G7 pressure on the pair to ensure faith in sovereign credits remains is interesting, but the redemption of the bonds does not mean we are back in the situation before the standstill in late November. 

The investors getting paid today are not the ones that were holding the bonds two weeks earlier.

Many fund managers, once the standstill was ann0unced, made the rational decision to sell as soon as possible and realise what they could. They left it to those more used to restructurings to take a punt on the likely outcome. It is these distressed investors that today are banking a quick profit.

So come the next sovereign or quasi-sovereign issue from Dubai, the investors approached to buy may still have made significant losses on ‘Nakhell’.

The book was covered by 5.15pm having been offered at E£25-£26 against a closing price of E£28.03.

Selling was expected but not in this size. The sale will raise approximately US$100m  or 0.17% of Dubai World’s US$60bn debt.