City Bank holds subscription closing ceremony of Contingent-Convertible Perpetual Bond

March 18, 2021 00:00:00

City Bank recently completed issuance of the country's first ever Basel-III compliant, Additional Tier-I, Contingent-Convertible Perpetual Bond of BDT 4.00 billion. In this connection, the bank held a subscription closing ceremony at The Westin Dhaka on Tuesday. Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam, Chairman, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, Ahmed Jamal, Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank, Aziz Al Kaiser, Chairman of City Bank and Aziz Al Mahmood, Chairman of City Bank Capital Resources Limited, and Mashrur Arefin, MD & CEO of the bank, were present on the occasion.

City Bank has recently completed issuance of the country's first ever Basel-III compliant, Additional Tier-I, Contingent-Convertible Perpetual Bond of BDT 4.00 billion. In this connection, the bank held a subscription closing ceremony at The Westin Dhaka on Tuesday, engaging several stakeholders and well-wishers of the bank, said a statement.

Salman F Rahman, MP, Private Industry & Investment Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, delivered a video speech at the event.

Special guests were Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam, Chairman, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, Ahmed Jamal, Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank, Aziz Al Kaiser, Chairman of City Bank and Aziz Al Mahmood, Chairman of City Bank Capital Resources Limited, along with many prominent senior officials from the financial industry.

Salman F Rahman said that the subscription completion and Tier-1 fund raising by using a perpetual bond was a landmark event and it would help to meet capital adequacy requirements.

BSEC Chairman Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam said that the launching of new innovate financial products had become much vital, without which, it would not be possible to finance economic activities in the coming days.

The bank entered into partnerships with several institutions for successfully issuing the floating-rate Perpetual Bond, among whom, City Bank Capital Resources Ltd were the mandated arrangers to the issue. The issue enhanced Tier-I capital of City Bank following "Guideline of Risk Based Capital Adequacy" of Bangladesh Bank; therefore, ultimately increased issuer's total Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR).

Mashrur Arefin, MD & CEO of the bank, expressed sincere gratitude to the subscribers, regulators and all other who were involved with the issuance process.

This bond will pave way for recapitalization of banks through optimizing their capital structure via a more efficient mix of debt and equity. This is an effective alternative to raising capital from existing shareholders. This first-of-its-kind instrument is expected to become a critical tool to support expansion of the banking sector in the coming years.