63 per cent ADB bonds bought by central banks | WPN World People News

MANILA, PHILIPPINES Central banks and official institutions have bought 63 per cent of a $1.25 billion 3-year bond sold by the Asian Development Bank, the multilateral institution said Wednesday.

The Manila headquartered ADB returned to the US dollar bond market Tuesday with the 3-year global benchmark bond issue.

The issue achieved wide primary distribution with around 63 per cent of the bonds being bought by central banks and official institutions, 20 per cent by fund managers, and 17 per cent by banks and others, the multilateral institution stated.

Regionally, about 52 per cent of the bonds were placed in Asia, 22 per cent in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and 26 per cent in the Americas.

The proceeds of the Bank's third global bond issue of the year will form part of the bank's ordinary capital resources and will be used in its non-concessional operations, ADB said in a statement.

"We are quite pleased with the transaction and the broad interest from investors resulting in a book in excess of $1.25 billion with over 40 investors," said ADB Treasurer Mikio Kashiwagi.

ADB mainly finances government projects in Asia, and also supports private sector development.

The regional lender, which carries AAA credit rating, plans to raise around $14 billion from the capital markets in 2012. Last year it had raised just over $14 billion from a combination of global benchmark issues, opportunistic issues in a variety of global currencies, and through private placements.

The bonds, which carry a coupon rate of 0.50 per cent per annum payable semiannually and a maturity date of 17 August 2015, were priced at 99.666 per cent to yield 0.605 per cent, or 19.55 basis points over the 0.25 per cent US Treasury notes due May 2015.

The transaction was lead-managed by Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and Nomura.

A syndicate group was also formed consisting of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Daiwa, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, and UBS.

Source:The Asia News.Net