CIMB Bank Berhad has successfully priced its USD500 million RegS/144A Sustainable Development Goals Bond (SDG Bond) on 13 January 2022, marking the first ever RegS/144A SDG Bond to be issued by a Malaysian bank in the international capital markets.
This USD SDG bond also marked the first ever 144A bond offering into the US markets by a Malaysian bank.
The accelerating global shift towards sustainable investing among a diverse investor base is reflected by the good response in the RegS/144A SDG Bond. Banks took up 34% of the bond while 43% was subscribed by fund managers, followed by 22% by securities firms and the remaining 1% subscribed by corporates.
The SDG Bond will be issued on 20 January 2022 under CIMB Bank’s existing USD5 Billion Global Medium Term Note Programme. It is a 5.5-year fixed rate note priced at a spread of 70 basis points above the 5-year US treasury, with a yield of 2.189%. Approval-in-principle has been received from the SGX-ST for the listing and quotation of the Notes on the official list of the SGX-ST, and an application will be made to list the SDG Bond on Bursa Malaysia (under the Exempt Regime).
CIMB Bank will channel the SDG Bond proceeds to various eligible financing assets/projects such as affordable housing, start-ups and SMEs, public schools and hospitals, green mass transit, climate resilient buildings and infrastructure, forestry and wildlife conservation projects, as well as COVID-19 and other global pandemic financing.
BofA Securities, CIMB Investment Bank Berhad, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered Bank are the Joint Bookrunners for the SDG Bond, while CIMB Investment Bank Berhad and BofA Securities are the Joint Arrangers for the USD5 Billion Global Medium Term Note Programme.
