Four banks appointed to manage US $ 1.5bn bond

REUTERS: Sri Lanka, which last month announced plans to raise US $1.5 billion from the sale of a 10-year sovereign bond, has mandated four foreign banks as lead managers, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said. The banks are Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered, Karunanayake told Reuters. “We have mandated the same banks we did last year and we are looking at the maximum we can go,” he added. The funds raised will be used to fund a budget gap and reschedule some expensive short-term loans, the government has earlier said.