This week, the African Development Bank successfully priced a USD 500 million reopening of its the 5-year bond, originally issued in January, bringing the new total issue size to USD 2.175 billion. This is the third reopening of this 5-year line and is now the Bank's largest outstanding Global transaction to date.
The issue was driven by strong reverse enquiry interest from key high quality accounts. Demand coming out of the Asian central bank community was particularly robust which prompted the offering to be upsized from an initially planned USD 100 million size, to USD 500 million. Eventual pricing achieved was midswaps flat which was in line with secondary trading levels.
Final distribution figures underscore AfDB's diverse investor base across key regions. Asian investors came in as the largest buyers at 55 percent. American and European investors bought 32 and 13 percent respectively.
The 8 accounts involved included high quality orders from central banks and official institutions, which bought 65 percent of the deal, while banks bought 32 percent and asset managers 3 percent.
The lead managers of the increase were Deutsche Bank and TD Securities. The bond matures in just under five years on 15 March 2018.
AfDB is a triple-A rated institution by the international ratings agencies Moodys, Fitch and Standard &Poor's. The USD 500 million increase demonstrates the bank's credibility as an international financial institution.
