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