Temasek prices offering of 10-year US$ bonds

Net proceeds will be used by Temasek and its investment holding companies to fund their ordinary course of business. PHOTO: REUTERS

Temasek Holdings has priced US$1.35 billion (S$1.83 billion) of 10-year US dollar-denominated bonds due 2028 to yield 72 basis points over US Treasuries, less than the 90 to 95 bps spread during initial price talk.

The issue was oversubscribed with over US$4.7 billion of orders from 174 accounts, according to market sources. Demand was mostly from the US and Asia, with investors from these regions making up 46 and 44 per cent of the total respectively.

The bonds bear a coupon of 3.625 per cent, but were sold at 99.576 per cent of par to yield 3.676 per cent to maturity. The notes are issued by the Singapore investment firm's wholly owned subsidiary Temasek Financial (I) under its US$20 billion guaranteed global medium term note programme. Triple-A rated Temasek will guarantee the notes.

Temasek's treasury head Erwin Pato said that the firm was "pleased with the response" to the deal.

"Our Temasek Bonds continue to serve as public markers of our credit quality. They also increase our funding flexibility and enhance our capital efficiency," he said.

Net proceeds will be used by Temasek and its investment holding companies to fund their ordinary course of business.

The offering is scheduled to close on Aug 1, and the bonds are expected to list on the Singapore Exchange on Aug 2. They are being offered to qualified institutional buyers who are also qualified purchasers under Rule 144A in the United States, and elsewhere in the world to non-US persons under Regulation S.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citibank, HSBC and Morgan Stanley ran the deal.

This is the first issue of bonds by Temasek since 2016. Then, it issued euro-denominated six-year and 12-year bonds.

Temasek recently reported a record portfolio size of $308 billion as at March 31.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 27, 2018, with the headline Temasek prices offering of 10-year US$ bonds. Subscribe