State-linked Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings yesterday said it plans to raise S$600 million (US$433 million) from new bond offerings.
The latest news follows an announcement last month that the firm would raise US$1.5 billion through a 10-year bond offer under a capital-raising program worth US$5 billion.
Temasek said in a statement the bond offerings, to be made in two tranches of S$300 million each, would be issued by its wholly owned subsidiary Temasek Financial.
“The issuer intends to provide the net proceeds from the offering to Temasek and its investment holding companies to fund their ordinary course of business,” the investment vehicle said in a statement.
“The notes will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Temasek,” it said.
Temasek said one tranche of the offering would mature in 2029 while the other was due in 2039.
The firm is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds and had a global portfolio worth S$130 billion as of March, including stakes in companies such as Singapore Airlines and Standard Chartered bank.
Separately, Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group Plc priced its record £13.5 billion (US$22.4 billion) rights issue at £0.37 per share, a smaller than expected discount, as it battles to escape a costly state-backed insurance scheme for bad debts.
The cash call, the world’s largest to date and a critical plank of Lloyds’ bumper £22.5 billion capital raising effort, will involve the bank offering 36.5 billion new shares to investors.
It will offer the stock on the basis of 1.34 new shares for every existing one, the bank said. The new shares will represent just over 57 percent of Lloyds’ enlarged share capital.
Britain’s largest retail bank had said it expected the offer price to be at a discount to the 38 to 42 percent theoretical ex-rights price (TERP). But the bank, 43 percent government-owned, came in with a marginally less aggressive discount than expected for its fully underwritten issue and a discount to TERP of 38.6 percent.
Lloyds is seeking to bolster its capital to allow it to escape the British government’s asset protection scheme, set up earlier this year to protect banks against further credit losses, but now seen as too expensive.
The bank will now seek shareholder approval for the rights issue at a meeting tomorrow.
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