Sri Lanka sells US41mn 3-year bonds

Sept 14, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lanka has sold 41 million US dollars of 3-year dollar denominated bonds rolling over 35 million US dollars of maturing 2-year debt, the government's debt office said.



The dollar bonds are aimed at domestic investors including banks who are eligible to hold dollar assets.

The bonds, labeled Sri Lanka Development Bonds, were priced at the 6-month London interbank offered rate (LIBO) plus 425 basis points,

Today, the US Dollar 6 month LIBOR rate is 0.6775 percent, the debt office said.

The risk premiums of three dollar bond auctions held for 2-year securities were 540bp in March, 497bp in June, and 450bp in August, the debt office, which is a unit of the Central Bank said.

The offer opened on September 09, with the settlement on September 22, 2009.

The debt office said 63 million US dollars of bids were received for the bond.

The Central Bank is expected to announce lead managers for a separate 500 million US dollar bond aimed at international capital markets shortly.