KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Simpanan Nasional’s (BSN) RM750 million Sukuk Wakalah offering -- its maiden issuance in the capital markets -- has received a strong response with an oversubscription of 3.48 times.

       The government-owned bank said the final order book registered total orders valued at RM2.61 billion from over 30 accounts consisting of fund managers, financial institutions, lifers and government agencies.

       The RM750 million sukuk comes under its recently established Sukuk Wakalah Programme of up to RM3.5 billion in nominal value.

       "The successful launch of this offering marks another important milestone for BSN as this is the bank’s maiden issuance in the capital markets," chief executive Jay Khairil said in a statement today.

       He said proceeds from the issuance would be utilised for BSN’s Shariah-compliant financing activities comprising refinancing existing/future financing, working capital and other corporate purposes.

       The offering was successfully priced on Oct 7, pursuant to a one-day book-building exercise, receiving a robust response from various investors that led to the transaction being upsized to RM750 million from the initial size of RM500 million.

       The three-year, five-year and seven-year Sukuk Wakalah tranches were priced at 2.93 per cent, 3.47 per cent and 3.89 per cent -- two to three basis points tighter than the lower end of the initial price guidance.

       The Sukuk Wakalah Programme has been assigned a final rating of AAA by RAM Rating Services Bhd. - Bernama