Published October 28, 2009

Temasek bond to set price benchmark

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SINGAPORE investment company Temasek Holdings said its US$1.5 billion bond sale this month will set a new pricing benchmark for its debt.

The sale of 4.3 per cent, 10-year notes 'helps to establish public markers for our credit quality, and provides us with the discipline of engaging with an expanded international stakeholder base', chief financial officer Leong Wai Leng said in a statement yesterday.

Temasek sold its first bonds for four years on Oct 20, pricing them to yield 95 basis points more than similar-maturity US Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The notes last traded at an 89 basis-point spread, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group prices.

Temasek updated its charter in August, the first time in seven years, reflecting a transformation from a passive owner of stakes in government-controlled companies to an investor with more than two-thirds of its assets outside Singapore.

The company said in May that it wanted to establish a 'series of different tenured bonds for a more robust and nuanced signal over the longer-term'. -- Bloomberg