Temasek's first retail bond just over 8 times subscribed

TEMASEK Holdings' first retail bond is just over eight times subscribed.

The public offer of the up to S$200 million 5-year 2.7 per cent bond closed on Tuesday at 12 noon, and valid applications received totalled S$1.68 billion representing a subscription rate of just over eight times, Temasek said in a press release.

An allocation will take place and the results of the allocation process will be announced by tomorrow evening.

Called the T2023-S$ Temasek Bond, a tranche of S$200 million of the bonds offered to institutional investors last week was 7.19 times subscribed and orders reached S$1.438 billion.

Temasek had offered up to S$400 million 2.7 per cent guaranteed notes due 2023 (subject to the upsized option), to be issued through its wholly owned subsidiary Temasek Financial (IV) Private Limited.

Clifford Lee, DBS Bank's global head of fixed income, said the robust demand for the offering, leading to sizeable oversubscription, is a signal that investors are looking for high-quality retail bonds from top-rated issuers.

"Temasek's offering of the same rate to retail investors, determined through a book-building process for the institutional tranche, is an important step in price transparency. The process saw central banks, insurance companies and fund managers provide price leadership and anchor interest in the offering before the retail tranche opened," he said.

"In light of the strong reception for the T2023-S$ Temasek Bond, we hope to see more retail bond offerings from quality issuers, with the same execution style, in the future."

Trading of the bonds on the mainboard of SGX-ST will start on Oct 26.