​Allen & Overy acted as counsel to Sri Lanka on its USD1.5 billion dual tranche 5.5-year and 10-year sovereign bond issuance. The transaction was the first done on a dual-tranche basis by Sri Lanka. The offering was sold pursuant to Rule 144A in the United States and pursuant to Regulation S outside of the United States.
The bonds’ pricing remained resilient to the aftermath of the U.K. referendum in June this year and received strong interest from a wide range of high quality investors. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank acted as the joint lead managers and bookrunners for this transaction.
The Allen & Overy team was led by partner Amit Singh and lawyers David Cameron, Michele Discepola, Wen-Chao Gao and Ming Wei Loo.
Commenting, Allen & Overy partner Amit Singh said: “We have seen a strong return by investors to the Asian bond markets in the last few weeks after the period of uncertainty caused by Brexit. The Sri Lankan sovereign bond issue is certainly an example of this. This transaction underscores our strength in the sovereign bond space and of our US capital markets practice and we hope to see more coming to market in the region.”