HSBC secures ‘Best Sri Lanka Deal 2010’ for Govt

HSBC having established its presence in Sri Lanka in 1892, is the largest foreign bank and fifth largest commercial bank in the country.

The bank demonstrates an impressive track record of landmark execution and product innovation for Sri Lanka in the international and domestic debt capital and project finance markets.

Assistant Governor Central Bank of Sri Lanka, J.P. Siriwardena (centre) with Managing Director Debt Capital Markets, HSBC Asia Pacific Alexi Chan and the representative of Finance Asia.

HSBC’s Investment Banking function has been a key partner in developing Sri Lanka’s infrastructure.

Over the past four years HSBC has raised financing in excess of USD 3 billion to finance projects such as telecommunication network expansion, highway and bridge construction, flyovers, solar irrigation, electricity and port development.

It is the only bank in Sri Lanka to have consecutively won three bond mandates by the Government of Sri Lanka starting with its inaugural issue in 2007 and subsequently in 2009 and 2010.

The most recent, 2010 issue was a landmark transaction. HSBC acted as Joint Lead Manager and Bookrunner of Sri Lanka’s third international sovereign bond of a USD 1 billion 10-year issue with a coupon rate of 6.25 percent.

This attracted an order book that exceeded USD 6.3 billion within 14 hours of opening thereby being over-subscribed more than 6 times, clearly underscoring the high global acceptance of Sri Lanka since the end of the conflict in the country.

The success of the issue was celebrated at the Finance Asia Awards held in Hong Kong recently, where the Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, J.P. Siriwardena accepted the award ‘Best Sri Lanka Deal 2010’.

Chief Executive Officer for HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives Nick Nicolaou said, “HSBC has strong debt capital market capabilities in Asia.

With a team of over 300 professionals in the region, we have secured this prestigious award for the Government on its benchmark bond issue.

We are committed to supporting the Government and the corporate sector in infrastructure development in line with national level strategies and we expect a flurry of activity in this space.”