FirstCaribbean Co-Leads USD100mn Bahamas Bond Deal

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

21 April 2008

FirstCaribbean International Bank announced on Thursday that, via its Capital Markets Unit, it has successfully completed a USD100mn, 30-year, bond issue for the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

FirstCaribbean and RBC Capital Markets were the joint-lead managers for the transaction.

The bond, which was oversubscribed, was placed with international and regional investors, and was the first of this type of deal from a Caribbean sovereign since the beginning of the year.

Ian Chinapoo, Managing Director, Capital Markets, noted the achievement of this particular bond issue:

“Given the challenging market conditions, the Bahamas has done well to achieve a 30-year tenor and oversubscription of the deal. This deal represents several firsts for the Bank and the Capital Markets team.”

He explained that this bond issue was the longest tenor paper placed by the FirstCaribbean Capital Markets team to date, and represents the longest tenor achieved by the Commonwealth of the Bahamas in the international debt market.

The proceeds of the bond will help the government of the Bahamas to finance general development in the country.

FirstCaribbean’s team of Capital Markets professionals has helped clients across the Caribbean raise more than USD1.5bn to finance projects and other strategic goals over the last 24 months, the bank revealed.

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