PTT Public Company Ltd, Thailand's integrated petroleum company, is hoping to make its international bond market debut in May with a $500 million fixed rate issue. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan have been mandated to lead the deal, which has no fixed tenor and is as yet unrated.
The transaction will mark the first true benchmark from Thailand since the financial crisis and as such should be propelled by its great rarity value. International investors have been almost completely starved of paper for the last seven years, with the exception of esoteric deals such as EGAT's World Bank guaranteed bond of 1998 and the Kingdom's phantom international bond deal of 2003...