SOUTH Africa's ABSA Bank plans to kick off its newly licensed banking operation in Singapore with an attractively priced US$50 million floating-rate certificate of deposit (FRCD).
Underwritten by two as-yet unnamed Singapore banks, the issue will be for three years.
'It's the first offshore fund-raising by a South African bank for some years, certainly since sanctions came off,' said Ken Hughes, general manager, business development, with the group's Hong Kong-based ABSA Finance Asia, yesterday.
'I would guess it's something like [the first in] nine to 10 years.' The mandate has not yet been formally awarded but Mr Hughes expects the deal to be ready late next month.
As a new name in the market, but with US$25 billion in total assets, ABSA is expected to find good demand. Mr Hughes said the deal would offer investors a good coupon.
'The pricing is going to be attractive to investors - it's going to be higher than Standard Chartered's,' he said.