RHB Bank Berhad successfully launched and priced a USD300.0 million in nominal value, 5-year senior unsecured notes (Senior Notes), marking the third issuance of its USD5.0 billion Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme, which was established on September 23, 2014 and the first USD public benchmark issuance by a Malaysian financial institution since April 2017.
The orderbook at the final price guidance stood at over USD1.8 billion, implying an oversubscription level of over 6.0 times from 114 accounts.
The strong demand allowed RHB Bank to tighten guidance to 128 bps over 5-year US Treasury at a yield of 3.766% per annum, representing the tightest credit spread for Southeast Asia/South Asia Issuance to-date in 2019.
By geographical distribution, Asian investors were allocated 95% and European investors 5%. In terms of investors’ type, fund managers and insurance companies were allocated 67% of the issue while banks were allocated 29% and the remaining 4% were allocated to private banks.
The Senior Notes are rated A3 by Moody’s Investors Service Inc. The issuance of the Senior Notes is expected to be completed by 19 February 2019 and the Senior Notes will be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited and Labuan International Financial Exchange Inc.
“We are pleased with the strong interest in our USD300 mil bond issue, which is able to attract interest from a diverse investor base across Asia and Europe.
“The pricing level reflects the strong confidence from the global investment community in RHB Bank as well as the overall investor sentiment towards Malaysia”, said RHB Banking Group managing director, Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli.
The net proceeds from the issuance of the Senior Notes will be utilised by RHB Bank for general working capital purposes.
RHB Investment Bank Berhad, Credit Suisse (Singapore) Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited are the Joint Lead Managers for the Senior Notes issuance.
