Sri Lanka to issue USD one billion sovereign bonds in September

Sri Lanka's Central Bank said today that it plans to issue an International Sovereign Bond amounting to US Dollar one billion around September 2010 on behalf of the government.


The Bank has invited leading international banks/investment houses to submit their proposals to act as Lead Manager(s)/Bookrunner(s), it announced.
This International Sovereign Bond issue would be within the annual borrowing limit approved by the Parliament for 2010.
The proceeds from this Sovereign Bond issue would be utilized for infrastructure development activities carried out by the government and to restructure the existing government debt portfolio by retiring high cost domestic debt and short term foreign currency denominated debt, a Central Bank statement said.