Banks await Sri Lanka’s sovereign bond mandate

Debt bankers are waiting for the Sri Lankan sovereign to mandate banks for its upcoming dollar benchmark. The sovereign sent out RFPs three weeks ago and is expected to mandate three or four banks during the next week or two.

Sri Lanka last tapped the bond market in July 2011, when it issued a $1 billion 10-year bond. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland were joint bookrunners. Bank of Ceylon acted as a co-manager.

During the past few years, the once war-torn country has regularly tapped the dollar bond market and has successfully built a following among investors...