Finance Ministry seeks investors in cooperation with DBS for sale of long-term treasury bonds

Minister of Finance Abdullah Jihad has said that efforts are under way to seek investors in cooperation with the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), for the sale of long-term treasury bonds.

Jihad told Sun Online that investors are being sought for 4 or 5 year bonds.

“Now we are looking to sell long-term bonds instead of short-term bonds or T-bills. DBS will work as an agent to look for investors. DBS has decided to hold a road show with investors to find buyers,” he said.

Jihad said that DBS has good relations with numerous investors as it is one of the strongest banks in Asia.

“It won’t be too difficult for the bank to find investors. We are hoping that it will be settled in about two months. A team of the bank recently visited Maldives and held discussions with us.”

He said that in addition to DBS, efforts were also under way to sell bonds to the government of Qatar.

Jihad said that MVR 1.3 billion needs to be added to this year’s budget, part of which had already been obtained through the sale of T-bills, and additional T-bills worth MVR 600 million need to be sold.