With the pricing of a $3 billion 5-year global bond, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) returned to the US dollar bond market. Its proceeds will be part of ADB’s ordinary capital resources.
With a coupon rate of 0.375% per annum payable semi-annually, the 5-year bond was priced at 99.556% to yield 15.4 basis points over the 0.25% US Treasury notes due July 2025.
“We looked at the post-summer issuance window and saw an opportunity to add a new 5-year to our global benchmark curve,” said ADB Treasurer Pierre Van Peteghem.
“With most of the immediate action in the dollar market situated around the long end, we felt that the mid part of the curve was relatively undersupplied and decided to capitalize on pent-up demand. The result was a strong one with an oversubscribed order book for a $3 billion benchmark print that will provide much-needed resources to support ADB’s increased assistance to its regional members in 2020,” Mr Peteghem said in a statement.
It should be noted here that the bank is planning to raise nearly $30 billion to $35 billion from the capital markets in 2020.
