Sri Lanka’s offers $2 bn International Sovereign Bond

Sri Lanka’s Central Bank (CB), acting on behalf of the Government, on Monday returned to the US dollar bond markets, successfully pricing a new issuance of US$500 million 5-year and $1.5 billion long 10-year Senior Unsecured Fixed Rate Bonds with maturity dates of June 28th, 2024 and March 28th, 2030, respectively. 

The bonds have been rated ‘B2’, ‘B’ and ‘B’ by Moody’s Investors Service, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, respectively, the CB said in a media release.

“This represents Sri Lanka’s 14th US dollar benchmark offering in the international bond markets since 2007, and its second transaction this year. The long 10-year tranche marks the longest tenor issuance to date in the international market, underlining the international investor community’s continued support for Sri Lanka and their confidence in the country’s economic fundamentals and long-term growth prospects. Also, the long 10-year tranche has been appropriately defined in line with Sri Lanka’s future debt service obligations and debt management strategy. BOC International, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, SMBC Nikko and Standard Chartered Bank acted as the Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners on the successful transaction,” it said.

The final orderbook stood at over $1.8 billion across 165 accounts for the 5-year tranche and over $4.4 billion across 290 accounts for the long 10-year tranche, reflecting total subscription of $6.2 billion (over three times over subscription), clearly highlighting global investors’ continued confidence in Sri Lanka and their positive outlook on Sri Lanka’s economic growth story, it said.