Top-Grade Bank Ventures Forth

Banco Estado de Chile plans to start marketing this week a benchmark 144A/RegS transaction among foreign accounts. The government-owned bank will meet fixed-income investors in London and Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday. The following week, the borrower will stop in New York and Boston on January 30, before finishing in New York and Chicago on January 31. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and HSBC are arranging the meetings. The Aa3/A+ borrower was last in the international market in September 2010 when it issued a $500m 4.125% 2020 bond at 99.24 to yield 4.219% via Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan. Those bonds have been trading around 104.00-104.50 or around 3.55% on yield basis.