Milbank Closes Sri Lanka's First Sovereign Bond
Offering Completed Successfully Despite Political Unrest
HONG KONG, November 6, 2007 – Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP (“Milbank”) announced today that it had represented the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in closing the country’s maiden sovereign bond offering, a US$500 million Rule 144A/Reg S offering of 8.25% Bonds due 2012.
“This is a very satisfactory outcome delivered in a very challenging environment, both in Sri Lanka and in the bond markets generally,” said Milbank Hong Kong Managing Partner Anthony Root. “The legal and banking teams did an outstanding job in helping Sri Lanka to access the international capital markets for the first time.”
Barclays Bank PLC, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) and J.P. Morgan Securities Limited acted as Joint Lead Managers, with Bank of Ceylon acting as Co-Managers on the transaction, which originally got underway in April 2006.
Milbank Of Counsel Joe Bauerschmidt said: “This was Sri Lanka’s maiden international sovereign offering and it represented nearly two years of foundation-building by the Government of Sri Lanka prior to the offering. Despite considerable political and economic challenges, the offering was successfully completed.”
The Milbank team also included Andrew Walker, a Partner from Milbank’s New York office, and Kendra Jhu, an Associate in the Hong Kong office. Allen & Overy were Joint Lead Managers’ international counsel with Julius and Creasy as local counsel. The Issuer’s local counsel were Nithya Partners.
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance and transactions, project finance, acquisition finance, and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The Firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, DC.