Manila, Philippines (BBN)– The Asian Development Bank (ADB) returned to the US dollar bond market on Wednesday with the pricing of a $1.5 billion 3-year global benchmark bond issue, an ADB announcement said on Thursday.

The bonds, with a coupon rate of 0.875 percent per annum, payable semiannually and a maturity date of 10 June 2014, were priced at 99.767 percent to yield 23 basis points over the 1.0 percent US Treasury notes due May 2014, according to the statement.

The transaction was lead-managed by BofA Merrill Lynch, Daiwa Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank. A syndicate group was also formed consisting of Bank of Montreal, Credit Suisse, HSBC, JP Morgan, Mizuho, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, RBC Securities, SMBC Nikko, and TD Securities.

The deal marks ADB’s second issue in the US dollar global bond market in 2011, having issued bonds with a 5-year maturity in February this year.

The ADB plans to raise around $13 to $15 billion from the bond markets by the end of this year.

BBN/SI/AD-02June11-1:34 pm (BST)