Record Rs. 6 b Bank of Ceylon debenture issue a success

Bank of Ceylon’s listed rupee debenture issue of Rs. 6 billion was concluded on Friday with great success, with the entire amount fully subscribed.

The closure on 23 November 2012 was 13 days ahead of scheduled closing date of 5 December 2012.

This is the biggest-ever debenture issue made by any financial institution in Sri Lanka. Large corporates as well as small investors representing a cross section of society have subscribed for these debentures.

This debenture issue was initially made for Rs. 3 billion, which was oversubscribed on the same day itself and in keeping with the overwhelming demand from the general public, the issue was kept opened for another Rs. 3 billion to read the total issue as Rs. 6 billion. The highest appetite of investors has been for the fixed interest rate option. This debenture issue is the fourth successful listed rupee debenture issue made by the Bank.

“The success of this debenture issue is a testimony to the trust of the public in the stability and capacity of the Bank of Ceylon, being the market leader in most of vital areas of banking,” a spokesman said yesterday.

The successful issue of this debenture enables the bank to increase tier II capital in terms of Basel-II, strengthen the capital base, enhance the single borrower limit, minimise the interest rate risk and gap exposures in the bank’s assets/liability portfolio, reduce dependency on volatile short-term borrowings.



Above all the long term fund base raised through this successful debenture issue could effectively be utilised to finance the long term financial needs in the priority sectors of the country’s economy such as exports, agriculture, tourism, infrastructure and manufacturing industry, and SME, etc.

Bank of Ceylon is the No. 1 bank in Sri Lanka with the largest asset base, largest loan book, largest deposit base, and highest profit. It has branches in Chennai and Male, and operations in London through its subsidiary.

BOC is the leader in inward remittances having 860 foreign correspondents in every continent and representatives in selected countries while claiming more than 50% market share in Treasury operations.

BOC recorded Rs. 16.29 billion profit before tax for the first nine months of 2012, which is a growth of 62.0% over the same period in 2011. The bank has the strength and diversity of resources to offer its customers a wide range of financial solutions, such as corporate banking, personal banking, Islamic banking, investment banking, off-shore banking, development banking, international and Treasury operations, and trade financing services, through its widely spread branch network in the country.

Fitch Rating (Lanka) Ltd. has upgraded Bank of Ceylon’s National Long Term Rating to AA+ (lka) stable outlook, which is the highest rating awarded to a local commercial bank in Sri Lanka. The bank made history by achieving the largest asset book of a Rs. 1 trillion balance sheet among all commercial banks in Sri Lanka.