Market Cap Of Labuan Exchange Tops $12 Billion

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

05 August 2005

The market capitalisation of the Labuan International Financial Exchange (LFX), has topped US$12 billion with the primary listing of US$600 million guaranteed notes issued by Sarawak International Incorporated (SII), the LFX announced on Thursday.

The new listing takes the total market capitalisation of the LFX to US$12.09 billion and the total number of listings on the exchange to 32, including six Syariah-compliant certificates (Sukuk) and six open-ended funds, with the remainder consisting of conventional debt securities and exchangeable bonds.

According to the LFX, the US$600 million 10-year guaranteed notes due in 2015 were guaranteed by SII’s parent company, SGOS Capital Holdings Sdn Bhd. SGOS in turn is wholly owned by the state financial secretary of Sarawak.

The notes bear an interest rate of 5.50% per annum and have been rated Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Services Ltd and A- by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. Deutsche Bank was the sole lead manager and sole bookrunner for the issue, which was oversubscribed by three times.

“This is the second issuance by the government of Sarawak after the Sukuk trust certificates issued by Sarawak Corporate Sukuk Inc early this year,” noted LFX board chairman Yusli Mohamed Yusoff.

“We welcome more state government agencies to utilise the various opportunities offered by LFX in Labuan IOFC. LFX and the IOFC could provide the platform to raise funding for development and business,” he added.

The LFX is an offshore exchange wholly owned by the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE). It was officially launched in November 2000 and it is seen as one of the the key components in promoting Labuan as an offshore financial centre.

A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series examining offshore investment, offshore stock exchanges, and hedge funds is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report9.asp

 

 






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