State-owned power utility Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), which is the country’s monopoly electricity transmitter and distributor, is gearing to raise up to Rs.20 billion through a listed debenture issue on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE).

The CSE, in brief statement today said it has approved an application by the CEB to issue senior unsecured listed redeemable rated debentures at an issue price of Rs.100 amounting to a potential capital raising of up to Rs.20 billion.

The debentures will be issued for period of five years with a fixed coupon interest rate of 9.35 percent p.a. (AER 9.35 percent) to be paid annually. The issue will open on April 8, 2021.

The initial issue will consist of 100 million debentures with an option to issue up to a further 100 million debentures at the discretion of the CEB in the event of an oversubscription of the initial Issue.

This will pave the way for CEB to raise Rs.10 billion in capital initially with an option to raise a further Rs.10 billion subsequently.

The debentures carry a rating of AA- (lka) by Fitch Ratings Lanka Limited while CEB is rated as AA-(lka) with a Stable Outlook by the same rating agency.

State-owned People’s Bank, the country’s second largest commercial bank in terms of assets, is the Manager, Banker and the Trustee to the debenture issue.