OREANDA-NEWS. February 05, 2010. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) returned to the US dollar bond market on 2 February with the pricing of a \\\\$2.5 billion 5-year global benchmark bond issue, proceeds of which will be part of the bank's ordinary capital resources and used in its non-concessional operations.

The bonds, with a coupon rate of 2.625% per annum payable semiannually and a maturity date of 9 February 2015, were priced at 99.642% to yield 34.15 basis points over the 2.25% US Treasury note due January 2015.

"We are very pleased with the size and sponsorship of the transaction, which reflects ADB's core funding strategy of maintaining a strong presence in key currency bond markets through regular issuance of liquid benchmark global bonds," said ADB Treasurer Mikio Kashiwagi.

The transaction was lead-managed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets and UBS. A syndicate group was also formed consisting of BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Daiwa, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan.

The deal marks ADB's first global issue in the US dollar global bond market since May 2009, when it also issued bonds with a 5-year maturity.

As with previous ADB benchmark transactions, the issue achieved extremely broad primary market distribution with 62% of the bonds placed in Asia, 20% in the US and 18% in EMEA. By investor types, 53% of the bonds went to Central Bank and Government Institutions, 27% to Banks, 18% to Fund Managers and 2% Others.

ADB plans to raise around US15 billion in 2010