Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Emirates NBD PJSC, the biggest United Arab Emirates bank by assets, may raise as much as $2 billion selling bonds in foreign markets in 2010 to fund loan growth.

“If we go back into the market, a billion-and-a-half, something like that, two billion maybe” may be raised, Chief Executive Officer Rick Pudner said in an interview in Dubai today. “It extends our maturity profile and if the opportunity is there, then that is the sort of funding we will look to raise.”

Emirates NBD met fixed-income investors in Asia and Europe in October. The state-owned bank will wait “until the first- quarter” of 2010 to return to the market, Pudner said.

Investor demand for Dubai and U.A.E. debt “is still very significant but a lot of people are waiting for the Nakheel transaction to pass,” he said.

Nakheel PJSC, the Dubai government-owned developer building palm tree-shaped islands off the emirate’s coast, has to repay a $3.52 billion Islamic bond, also known as sukuk, due in December.

The plunge in property Dubai prices and the seizure of credit markets has sparked concern the company may default. Nakheel may offer regional banks an option to extend the bond’s maturity, a banker familiar with the plan said Oct. 21. Emirates NBD holds “some” of the sukuk, Pudner said.

“The Nakheel transaction will be resolved successfully, for Dubai and for the investors,” he said.

Emirates NBD said in October its loan book grew 4 percent in the nine months through September to 217 billion dirhams ($59 billion). Lending is expected to increase by about 10 percent in 2010, Pudner said today. The bank is looking for acquisitions in the Gulf, North Africa and Turkey, he said.

“We said at the time of the merger we would like to see 20 percent of our revenue base outside the U.A.E. and that still remains a target,” Pudner said. Emirates NBD’s foreign business contributes about 5 percent of revenue, he said.

Emirates NBD was formed in October 2007 with the merger of Emirates Bank International PJSC and National Bank of Dubai PJSC.

To contact the reporter on this story: Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 21, 2009 10:49 EST