Petronas, the state-owned Malaysian oil multinational, has returned
to the market for the first time since 1999 with a record-breaking
three-tranche debt offering that totalled $2.675 billion.
The combined size of the Baa1-rated deal, launched in New York,
makes it the largest ever bond issue by an Asian corporate outside
of Japan, narrowly eclipsing Singapore Telecom's $2.3 billion issue
of November 2001. The offering included a $1.3 billion 10-year
tranche, a $750 million 20-year tranche, and a e750 million ($684.6
million) seven-year tranche - the largest ever euro-denominated
offering by an Asian issuer. The Petronas issue accounts for more
than half of the $4 billion of debt raised by Asian companies
outside of Japan in the first quarter of this year.
Morgan Stanley was a joint bookrunner for all three tranches and
the global coordinator for both dollar tranches. Barclays Capital
and HSBC were joint bookrunners for the...
