March 17, 2006	Friday	Safar 16, 1427

KARACHI, March 16: Pakistan will launch a sovereign dollar bond on March 24, aimed at setting up a benchmark yield curve, a senior government official said on Thursday.

“We will be going for roadshows to market the bond from the 19th, after which we will float the bond in New York on the 24th,” Salman Shah, adviser to the prime minister on finance, told Reuters.

“We will be holding roadshows in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Los Angeles, Boston and New York,” he said.

Mr Shah did not give any details regarding the tenure and size of the issue, which will be Pakistan’s third foray into the international capital market since early 2004.

But Adnan Gilani, a director in Pakistan’s ministry of finance, told Reuters in January that the country planned to issue a eurobond of more than $500 million by the end of March.

Mr Gilani said at the time that the issue size would probably be towards the upper range of previous issues and the tenor would range between five and 10 years, very probably towards the higher end.

The government has appointed Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan as joint lead managers for the issue.

It will be the fourth offshore sovereign bond issue from Asia this year.

The Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia tapped the international market earlier this year.

Pakistan is rated B-plus by Standard & Poor’s, one notch below the Philippines and four notches below investment grade.—Reuters