Mayer Brown advised the Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners on the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka’s offering of new senior unsecured fixed rate notes, comprising of US$1.25 billion 5.75% notes due 2023 and US$1.25 billion 6.75% notes due 2028. The Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners were Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank. This was Sri Lanka’s largest offshore bond offering to date, and mark Sri Lanka’s twelfth US dollar benchmark offering in the international bond markets since 2007. The offering saw strong interest from a wide range of high quality international investors, with the final order book many times oversubscribed.

The three-practice, three-office Mayer Brown team was led by Hong Kong-based Corporate & Securities partner Thomas Kollar and included partner Jason T. Elder in Hong Kong, partner Jared Goldberger in New York and partner James Taylor in London.

Thomas Kollar commented, “The success and scale of this latest issuance is a fantastic statement regarding the state of Sri Lankan credit and a great outcome for the country. In the last 12 months we have advised on four sovereign issuances in Asia Pacific and we were able to bring to bear that experience for this issuance. Mayer Brown is proud to have provided integrated and strategic advice and solutions for what was a landmark transaction for the region.”