STANDARD Chartered Bank is to launch a $1.6 billion five-year floating-rate certificate of deposit (FRCD) issue next week, following up on its successful five-year issue four months ago, banking sources say.
A banker close to the deal said it would occur next week at the earliest, and an underwriting group had been formed.
The deal follows speculation that Standard Chartered has been considering a $1 billion issue. The bank's $600 million five-year FRCD closed in June, and was eventually increased to $1.2 billion to meet investor demand.
The source refused to comment on the possible coupon, but bankers have indicated that all-in yield will be about 0.45 percentage point above the six-month Hong Kong interbank offered rate.
Floating-rate issues have dominated the market in recent months, representing $11.4 billion, or 93 per cent of all capital market issues in the third quarter of the year.
In the nine months to September 30, Hong Kong dollar floaters totalled $21.87 billion, against $12.22 billion in the fixed-rate sector.
