OREANDA-NEWS. May 28, 2015. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) returned to the US dollar bond market yesterday with the pricing of a \\$2 billion 3-year global benchmark bond issue, proceeds of which will be part of ADB’s ordinary capital resources and used in its non-concessional operations.

"We are pleased with the transaction and the broad sponsorship from investors globally that allowed us to upsize the transaction to \\$2 billion,” said ADB Treasurer Pierre Van Peteghem.

The 3-year bond, with a coupon rate of 1.125% per annum payable semiannually and a maturity date of 5 June 2018, was priced at 99.915% to yield 15.4 basis points over the 1% US Treasury notes due May 2018.

The transaction was lead-managed by Citi, Credit Suisse, HSBC and Nomura.  A syndicate group was also formed consisting of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Daiwa, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Mizuho, Morgan Stanley, RBC, SMBC Nikko, and TD Securities. 

The issue achieved wide primary market distribution with 25% of the bonds placed in Asia, 37% in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and 38% in the Americas. By investor type, 73% of the bonds went to central banks and official institutions, 19% to banks, and 8% to fund managers and other types of investors.

ADB plans to raise about \\$19 billion from the capital markets in 2015.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members – 48 from the region.  In 2014, ADB assistance totaled \\$22.9 billion, including cofinancing of \\$9.2 billion.