Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) returned to the US dollar bond market on with the pricing of a 3-year global benchmark bond worth $2.25 billion and a 10-year global benchmark bond worth $2.0 billion, proceeds of which will be part of ADB’s ordinary capital resources, an ADB press release said on Thursday.
“The dollar market has seen a very active start to the new year,” said ADB Treasurer Pierre Van Peteghem . “ADB is very pleased to make its first outing a strong one.
The dual 3-year and 10-year tranche approach allowed ADB to respond to investor demand on both ends of the maturity spectrum as reflected in the final orderbook being over $6.5 billion.
It is also noteworthy that this 10-year transaction opened the market for supranationals in that tenor and equaled ADB’s largest 10-year transaction to date.”
The 3-year bond, with a coupon rate of 1.625 percent per annum payable semi-annually and a maturity date of 24 January 2023, was priced at 99.953 percent to yield 7.7 basis points over the 1.5 percent US Treasury notes due January 2023.
The 10-year bond, with a coupon rate of 1.875 percent per annum payable semi-annually and a maturity date of 24 January 2030, was priced at 99.610 percent to yield 13.25 basis points over the 1.75 percent US Treasury notes due November 2029.
The transaction was lead-managed by Barclays, J.P. Morgan, Nomura, and RBC Capital Markets. A syndicate group was also formed consisting of ANZ, Commerzbank, ING, Credit Agricole, and Natwest Markets.
Both issues achieved wide primary market distribution with 37 percent of the 3-year bonds placed in Asia, 37 percent in the Americas, and 26 percent in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
