Sri Lanka's BOC Bank to Sell $500mn Bond in the First Half of 2012

04th January 2012, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka's state-run Bank of Ceylon, the island's largest lender is looking to sell a 500 million dollar bond in the first half of this year chairman Gamini Wickramasinghe said.

"It will be during the next three to four months," he said. "The bond will be rated."
Bank of Ceylon has been one of the most prolific banks to go to international markets. It has previously raised money through syndicated loans.

Last month the bank raised 140 million dollars from UAE based Mashreq Bank.

Bank of Ceylon had gross assets of 779.1 billion rupees (6.8 billion US dollars) by end September 2011 and net assets of 31.45 billion rupees (276 million US dollars).

In the nine months to September it earned profits of 6.78 billion rupees (59 million US dollars.

It is rated AA+(lka) by Fitch.

Sri Lanka's central bank has urged banks to borrow abroad using the benchmarks set by government bonds.

In 2012 the central bank is expecting one billion dollars in Tier II capital to flow into banks from abroad.

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