The central bank of Sri Lanka is preparing to issue  samurai bond of US $500 million in October or November.

Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy said that a Cabinet paper would be presented tomorrow (27) which would give approval to release the Request for Proposals (RFPs) for $ 500 million Samurai bond and to appoint a steering committee to select the lead manager.

“It could take two to three months. We were told that a good time for the Japanese market is October. We want to get ourselves ready as quickly as we can over the next couple of months and then depending on market conditions, we would seek to issue the Samurai bond,” Governor said.

“We had consultations with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the governor of JBIC said that they would be willing to give a 95% guarantee credit enhancement and a flexible fee. We spoke to about a dozen institutional investors and who were all Supportive, especially with the JBIC guarantee. So we are looking to raise about US $500 million,” he added.