Maybank, the fourth largest bank in South East Asia by assets, has successfully launched an inaugural TOKYO PRO-BOND Market listed transaction (“Pro-Bond”), raising JPY 31.1 billion (equivalent to circa USD 305 million) with a three year tenor. This is the first Pro-Bond issued out of the issuer’s USD 5 billion Multi-currency MTN programme.
TOKYO PRO-BOND Market is a new issue bond market for professional investors operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange. A foreign issuer can benefit from a concise disclosure requirement compared with a conventional public offering bond in Japan. Pro-bonds attract a large array of Japanese professional domestic investors, ranging from large institutional accounts to smaller regional banks and institutions.
The issuer is rated A3, A-, A- respectively by Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (“Crédit Agricole CIB”), and Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pte Ltd (“MKES”) acted as joint book managers.
Maybank Group Corporate Treasurer, Odie Lee said, “By establishing a Pro-Bond platform, Maybank has successfully secured a new recurring source of medium to long term funding. We have over recent times opened our funding to private placements and this new access to the Japanese capital markets fits our diversification strategy.”
Benjamin Lamberg, Global co-Head of MTNs & Private Placements and Asian Syndicate and Junya Fujisaki, Head of Syndicate Japan at Crédit Agricole CIB, added “In a supportive environment, investors responded very positively to this pro-bond offering. The overall transaction only took two weeks from the first interest expressed by investors to completion.”
MKES’ Head of Debt Capital Markets, Ka Sing Lee, meanwhile said, “This is a milestone transaction for Maybank Kim Eng and represents our first foray into the Japanese capital markets. We will continue to build on this success and momentum to offer our client access to the Japanese capital markets.”