Overview
- The Finance Division announced on Tuesday that it has formally appointed three consortia to manage eurobond, international sukuk and PKR‑denominated USD‑settled bond programmes and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb held a virtual meeting with consortium executives.
- The eurobond group includes Standard Chartered, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD Capital and MUFG Securities Asia; the international sukuk group includes Standard Chartered, Dubai Islamic Bank, Citibank, Emirates NBD Capital and Mashreq Bank; the PKR‑USD‑settled bond group includes Standard Chartered, Citibank and Deutsche Bank.
- The Debt Management Office ran a Single Stage, Two Envelope procurement under Rule 35 and the evaluation gave weight to technical and financial scores, with Standard Chartered topping technical rankings and Emirates NBD submitting the lowest evaluated financial bid for the eurobond consortium.
- The appointments are valid for three years and establish a GMTN/sukuk platform rather than a live fund‑raise, with officials stressing any market issuance will follow completion of legal documentation and other formalities.
- A GMTN lets the government issue bonds faster without redrafting legal paperwork and international sukuks open access to Islamic investors, which officials say could broaden Pakistan’s investor base, lower borrowing costs and support external financing needs; some media reports cited about $2 billion as a possible fundraising target for the year.