The Central bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has raised $1,500 million international sovereign bonds, marking the country’s largest offering in the international bond market since 2007.

Announcing this on Wednesday, the CBSL said the 10-year bonds carried a coupon of 6.85 per annum at par and this was the country’s ninth U.S. dollar benchmark.

The bonds had been rated 'BB-', ‘B1’ and ‘B+' by Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard and Poor’s respectively. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and the Standard Chartered Bank were joint lead managers and book runners of the “successful transaction,” which was completed on Tuesday.

Final order books stood at $3.3 billion from 290 investor accounts, achieving an over-subscription ratio of 2.2 times. The allocation of the bonds was 55 per cent for the U.S., 29 per cent for Europe and 16 per cent for Asia. As for the mix of investors, fund managers accounted for 88 per cent of the allocation, banks 9 per cent and pension or insurance agencies three per cent.

The release added that the outcome of the issue of the bonds showed “the continued investor confidence in Sri Lanka, despite the volatility in the international bond market.”

(The Hindu)