Masan Consumer Holdings, a subsidiary of Masan Group (MSN), has successfully sold VND2.1 trillion (US$98.3 million) worth of 10-year bonds with an annual coupon of 8%.

This is one of the biggest bond issues in Vietnam by volume. The enterprise declined to detail the issuing fee but said that the coupon is quite low on the local corporate bond market.

This is the lowest coupon for 10-year corporate bonds issued by local private firms, according to Nirukt Sapru, general director of Standard Chartered Vietnam, the bond issuance agent for Masan Consumer.

Buyers of the bonds are finance companies, mainly international insurers active in Vietnam. This is an encouragement for issuers of corporate bonds with long tenors at a time when demand for Government bonds is in decline.

The bonds are guaranteed by the Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility (CGIF), a trust fund of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the governments of the ASEAN countries and Japan, South Korea and China. This marks a milestone on the domestic-currency bond market, said Kiyoshi Nishimura, chief executive officer of CGIF.

Societe General Corporate and Investment Bank acted as an international consultant for the bond issuance and Ky Thuong Securities Company was an agent responsible for payment transfer.

Masan Consumer Holdings will use part of the VND2.1 trillion to invest in consumer goods firms.

In January-September, Masan Consumer posted net revenue of over VND3.1 trillion, dropping 2.2% against the same period last year, while its revenue jumped 18% year-on-year to over VND8.8 trillion.

SGT/VNN