Sovereign Bond
JP Morgan also keen to become issue manager
JP Morgan, a US-based investment bank, has showed interest to become issue manager for raising funds for Bangladesh from the international money market, officials said.
Some international banks have started lobbying for the same as the government planned to issue sovereign bonds to raise finance from foreign sources.Goldman Sachs, another US-based multinational investment bank, a couple of months ago also expressed willingness to be the issue manager for the bonds. The London-based HSBC has also been for long pursuing the government to get the deal.
Last month, Deutsche Bank AG, a German global bank and financial services company, showed interest in assisting the government to raise dollars from the international market.
Officials of JP Morgan, now in the country, on Monday expressed their willingness to be the issue manager of the proposed bonds.
The JP Morgan officials—Madhav Kalyan, Michael Paulus and Sazzad Anam—at a meeting with finance minister AMA Muhith suggested that it is a very suitable time now for issuing bonds.
The interest rate has been hovering around 4 to 5 per cent, Muhith told reporters after the meeting, adding that the government might issue bonds sometime next year.
The government, in the face of foreign currency crunch, has been planning since 2009 to raise funds from the international money market to expedite big infrastructure projects.
The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency suspended around US$ 2 billion loans for the Padma Bridge project in 2012 following allegation of corruption in the tender process.
Bangladesh Bank had opposed issuance of bonds worth US$ 500 million last year.
Officials said the BB had been asked to get documents prepared for a whopping US$ 2 billion worth of bonds.
They said higher amount of bonds would ensure a handsome amount of commission for the issuer.
BB technical committee, led by deputy governor Shitangshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury, identified the risks including appreciation of the local currency against the dollar and fall in soft loans from the donor agencies with the issuance of bonds.
-With New Age input
