Strong demand for Citic Envirotech USD perpetual bond issue; orderbook closed

CITIC Envirotech Ltd (CEL) USD perpetual bond issue has met with strong demand on Thursday with its orderbook closed at 12.45pm.

"It's to prevent allocation nightmare," said Clifford Lee, DBS Bank head of fixed income.

CEL is looking to issue US$150 million bonds and orders had exceeded US$250 million shortly after the morning opening.

The initial price guidance for the CEL deal is in the 5.75 per cent area.

"We're hearing that the issue is heavily over-subscribed of 4-5 times," said Terence Lin, iFAST regional research manager - bonds & portfolio management.

The strong reception for CEL follows similar hot responses on Tuesday for two USD benchmark issues - SP Powerassets and STATS ChipPAC.

The orderbook for Singapore Power's SP Powerassets US$700 million 10-year bonds reached US$1.4 billion. STATS ChipPAC US$425 million five-year deal had an orderbook of US$800 million.

Listed on the Singapore Exchange since 2004, CEL has more than 10 years of proven track record in providing membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment solutions in Asia, and owns 42 water plants across different provinces in China.

CEL also has strong shareholders, with Beijing-based stated-owned Citic and global private equity firm KKR being the two largest shareholders with effective ownership of 54.9 per cent and 23.9 per cent, respectively.