RBL Issues 2 Billion Dollar Bond To Government

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: July 28, 2016 – Republic Bank has announced the successful execution of a TT$2,000,000,000 Fixed Rate Bond to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, to assist with financing of the nation’s 2015/2016 Budget. This is the single largest fully underwritten commitment for the Bank, to date. The Bank received notice of the award of mandate on June 17, 2016 and was able to achieve disbursement on June 29, 2016. Republic Bank was the sole Arranger for the bond, which has a 14-year term with a fixed interest rate of 4.50% per annum.

Executive Director of Republic Bank, Roopnarine Oumade Singh, said, "Republic Bank has partnered with the private and public sectors in developing the economies of Caribbean region for many years and we are very pleased to be able to support the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, through this bond. We are a strong Bank and we have always subscribed to the philosophy that if we have the capacity to help another then we must. Whether public or private, we are sectors of the same nation and if we are to continue moving Trinidad and Tobago successfully into the future, we must bring our strengths to the fore and work together.”

This is not the first time that the Bank has assisted governments through bond flotations. The Bank’s Merchant Bank subsidiary, Fincor, which was merged into Republic Financial Holdings Limited in 2015, floated its first government bond in 1986 – a bond valued at over TT$200 million. In the decades, since, the Bank has become a pioneer in the development of bonds, notes, shares and other capital market instruments throughout the Caribbean