Hyflux sells $300m perpetual bonds

HYFLUX Ltd has just sold the first perpetual bond of the year as the debt market hots up. The water-treatment company's $300 million of NC3 bonds, priced at 5.75 per cent, received orders in excess of $600 million, said sole bookrunner DBS Bank yesterday.

NC3, or on-call three, means that the perpetuals - bonds with no maturity - cannot be redeemed by the company until the third year. The call option will be on Jan 23, 2017, and at every distribution date thereafter at par. If they are not called, the interest rate will be stepped up by 200 basis points from year three.

Private bank investors took 84 per cent of the Hyflux issue while fund managers, banks and others, the remaining 16 per cent. Singapore investors accounted for 92 per cent of the allocation, while Hong Kong got 7 per cent and others, one per cent.