Mandiri delays $300m bond sale

Mandiri delays $300m bond sale

JAKARTA: PT Bank Mandiri, Indonesia's largest lender, said it's delaying the planned sale of US$300 million of bonds after borrowing costs increased.

The Jakarta-based bank planned to sell the bonds to help pay an estimated $247 million of debt coming due this month, it said in April. Last month, it hired Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to manage the sale.

"We have to postpone the sale from the original target of June 1 until the market improves," J.B Kendarto, director for treasury at Mandiri, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. The bank may sell the bonds in the third quarter "if the market is good," he said, without elaborating.

Indonesian banks including PT Bank Negara Indonesia, the country's third-largest lender, and PT Bank Danamon, the No. 5, have postponed bond sales after yields on emerging-market debt widened on concern the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates more than forecast. -- Bloomberg