MANILA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised 1.2 trillion Indonesian rupiahs (about 84 million U.S. dollars) from a new issue of offshore Indonesian rupiah-linked bonds, the bank announced on Tuesday.
The Manila-based bank said the transaction was structured as a 15-year fixed rate bond maturing in March 2034, making it the longest tenor local currency bond ever issued by the ADB. Previously, the ADB had issued 10-year and 11-year bonds in Chinese renminbi, Indian rupees, and Indonesian rupiah, but longer maturities had proven elusive.
The ADB has supported the development of the region's capital markets since 1970, having issued multiple currencies and formats.
"The growth of local currency bond markets is of strategic importance to developing countries in Asia," said ADB Treasurer Pierre Van Peteghem.
"But the challenge often remains in sourcing funding with sufficient tenor to support ADB's long-dated loans. With this 15-year bond issue, ADB is not only solving that mismatch, but also establishing a benchmark for other issuers to follow," he added.
The ADB said the bond issue, denominated in Indonesian rupiah but settled in U.S. dollars, was underwritten by JP Morgan as sole lead manager. The bank further said the new issue bears a semi-annual coupon of 7.80 percent. The bonds were placed 70 percent in Europe and 30 percent in the Americas, with institutions, banks and retail investors participating.
"Proceeds from the bonds will be mobilized to support ADB's local currency lending in Indonesia," the bank said in a statement.
In 2017, the Manila-based bank committed 2.035 billion U.S. dollars in sovereign and non-sovereign loans, technical assistance and grants to Indonesia. Indonesia is among the ADB's largest sovereign borrowers.
The ADB is a regular borrower in the mainstream international bond markets but has also led issuance in developing Asia as part of its efforts to promote domestic bond markets as an alternative to bank lending.
So far this year, ADB has raised 180 million U.S. dollars from bond issues in Kazakhstan and the Philippines.
