OREANDA-NEWS. On September 02, 2008 The Asian Development Bank (ADB) returned to the US dollar bond market with a US1.25 billion 5-year global benchmark bond issue.

Proceeds from the issue will go into ADB's ordinary capital resources for use in its non-concessional operations.

The bonds, which mature on 5 September 2013, have a coupon of 3.625% per annum, payable semiannually. They are priced at 99.552% to yield 67.25 basis points over the 3.375% US Treasury note, due July 2013.

"We are very satisfied with the transaction and the robust demand from investors, which resulted in an oversubscribed book," said ADB Treasurer Mikio Kashiwagi. "The interest from central banks is the highest we have seen, reflecting the high quality of the order book."

About 44% of the bonds were placed in Europe, Middle East and Africa, 34% in Asia, and 22% in the Americas. By investor types, around 92% were bought by central banks, 6% by fund managers, and 2% by banks.

ADB plans to raise around US9 billion in 2008.

The transaction was lead-managed by BNP Paribas, JP Morgan and Nomura. A syndicate group was also formed consisting of Citigroup, Daiwa, Dresdner, HSBC, Merrill Lynch, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, TD Securities and UBS.