Maybank

Singapore, 5 August 2013 – Swiber Holdings Ltd (“Swiber”), through its wholly- owned subsidiary Swiber Capital Pte Ltd, and its adviser, Maybank Kim Eng acting as the sole lead arranger and global coordinator for the programme, has successfully priced Swiber’s inaugural S$150 million five-year sukuk issue at a fixed periodic distribution rate of 6.50%. This issue represents Swiber’s debut sukuk issuance and is the first drawdown from Swiber’s newly established US$500 million Multi-Currency Islamic Trust Certificates Issuance Programme which was structured based on the Islamic principle of Wakalah Bi Al-Istithmar. Additionally, Swiber is one of the first few local Singaporean corporate issuers to have issued a sukuk offering.

This debut sukuk issuance from Swiber was highly successful, given the ability of Maybank Kim Eng, as one of the two joint leads, to secure strong anchor demand from high-quality investors and hence providing the momentum to price the issue competitively. The issuance was strongly supported by Maybank Kim Eng’s network of investors across South East Asia with a majority of them coming from Brunei (46.3%) and Singapore (43.7%), while Malaysian investors made up the remainder (10.0%). By investor type, the S$150 million was allocated to institutional buyers which included takaful funds, pension funds and banks (96.5%), fund managers (0.7%) and private banks (2.8%). The final fixed periodic distribution rate of 6.50% which was tighter than Swiber’s outstanding conventional paper due 2017 quoted at 6.58% also suggests that sukuk deals are gaining momentum in Singapore and that Singapore dollar sukuk can be priced more competitively than conventional Singapore dollar bonds.

Tengku Dato’ Zafrul, Group Chief Executive of Maybank Kim Eng said: “Maybank Kim Eng is honoured to have advised Swiber on this landmark transaction which continues to showcase our expertise in structuring and executing sukuk transactions in the region for our clients. We also proud to be able to play an instrumental role in contributing to the growth and development of Islamic finance in Singapore. We are confident of bringing to the market similar sukuk transactions that will further cement our position as the market leader in this space.”

Referring to a recent speech delivered by Minister Lim Hng Kiang, Deputy Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the World Islamic Banking Conference held in Singapore in June 2013, Tengku Dato’ Zafrul concurred that the growth potential for Islamic finance in Singapore has yet to be fully realised. “We see this sukuk issuance as the first of many to come. We will work closely with the relevant authorities to identify and address time-to-market issues to further facilitate Islamic financing activities in Singapore,” he added.

Mr Francis Wong, Group Chief Executive Officer and President of Swiber said: “As a world-class integrated construction and support services provider, Swiber offers a wide range of offshore engineering, procurement, installation and construction services, marine support and subsea support solutions across the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America. This overwhelming investor interest in Swiber’s maiden S$150 million five-year sukuk issue reflects strong confidence in Swiber’s fundamentally sound business model and has allowed us to broaden and deepen our investor base. We are now further empowered to execute on our plans to capitalise on the world’s growing energy demands.”

Maybank Kim Eng and its parent company Maybank are joint programme dealers with Maybank Islamic acting as the Shariah adviser for the programme.