Sri Lanka's Ministry of Finance has announced the successful expiration of its Consent Solicitation and Exchange Offer for International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs). The preliminary results show a remarkably high participation rate among market participants, signaling strong confidence in the country's financial restructuring efforts.
On 25 November 2024, Sri Lanka issued an Invitation to ISB holders to exchange their existing bonds for new debt instruments. This move followed an agreement in principle on 19 September 2024 with two major groups of holders—international investors and domestic financial institutions—who collectively represent about 50% of the total outstanding ISBs. As the offer period closed, the Ministry reported that close to 98% of the total outstanding ISBs are expected to be exchanged for new securities.
President and Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, expressed his satisfaction with the preliminary results: "We are very pleased to see this vote of confidence from our international and local bondholders. The past few years have been very challenging for the Sri Lankan population, but all of our collective efforts are now paying off. The implementation of this debt exchange, which is the result of two years of intense negotiations, will deliver substantial debt relief for Sri Lanka. It will free up resources in the short and medium term to finance our development and social agenda, while restoring the long-term sustainability of our public finances."
The Ministry further announced that final results of the exchange offer will be available on 16 December 2024, with the settlement of the bond exchange anticipated to occur on 20 December 2024.
PressRelease13.12.2024