KUALA LUMPUR (July 20): National mortgage corporation Cagamas Bhd is tapping the Singapore debt market for the third time this year, to raise S$41.5 million via the issuance of conventional multicurrency medium-term notes or EMTN.

In a statement today, it said the Singapore-dollar denominated issuance will have a maturity of one year and will be issued under the company's wholly-owned unit Cagamas Global PLC's US$2.5 billion EMTN Programme.

The notes will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Cagamas, it said.

The conclusion of the one-year tenured SGD issuance was a result of proactive engagement with investors from Singapore, and was competitively priced at 1.53%, representing a spread of 55 basis points above the one-year Singapore Offer Rate (SOR), said Cagamas CEO Datuk Chung Chee Leong.

"Continuous efforts in monitoring the foreign currency markets and conducting comparative analysis on the after-swap costs have also contributed to the finalisation of the deal," he added.

The issuance marks Cagamas' fourth foreign currency issuance for 2017, and brings the value of its total foreign currency issued year-to-date (YTD) to RM2.15 billion or 30% of all issuances concluded by Cagamas YTD, said Chung.

"The papers, which will be redeemed at their full nominal value upon maturity, are unsecured obligations of the company, ranking pari passu among themselves and with all other existing unsecured obligations of Cagamas," the statement further read.