Temasek Holdings has established a new $5 billion guaranteed medium-term note programme to fund the ordinary course of business for the Singapore government-owned investment firm and its investment holding companies.

Notes under the programme will be issued by Temasek Financial (IV), and be unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by Temasek, which is triple-A rated by Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.

The notes may be offered under existing Singapore regulations, including the seasoning framework that allows issuers to offer bonds from existing series to retail investors under certain conditions. No bonds are actually being offered yet.

DBS Bank is the arranger of the programme, joined by HSBC, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered and United Overseas Bank as dealers.

As of July 16, Temasek has an ongoing US$20 billion (S$27 billion) medium-term note programme and a short-term US$5 billion euro-commercial paper programme.

As of March 31, the issuer had $11.4 billion of bonds outstanding with a weighted average maturity of more than 11 years. The firm's outstanding Singdollar bonds include $1 billion of 3.265 per cent bonds due 2020.

Temasek on July 26 also sold US$1.35 billion of 10-year bonds due 2028 at a coupon of 3.625 per cent. Those bonds were sold at 99.576 per cent of par to yield 3.676 per cent to maturity, representing a credit spread of 72 basis points over 10-year US Treasuries.