Malaysia's Khazanah raises $320.8 mln in exchangeable sukuk

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Malaysia's state investor Khazanah Nasional Bhd said on Thursday it has raised $320.8 million through a sukuk that is exchangeable into CITIC Securities Co Ltd's Hong-Kong listed H-shares.

CITIC Securities, China's largest securities brokerage firm, will be Khazanah's eighth exchangeable sukuk offering, with Telekom Malaysia Bhd's being the inaugural issue in 2006.

The zero-coupon sukuk, to be issued through an independent special purpose vehicle Cindai Capital Ltd, has a tenure of five years and an investor put option after three years.

The sukuk was structured with a zero percent yield-to-maturity and an exchange premium of 40 percent above CITIC's volume weighted average share price on Wednesday.

"It was opportune for us to successfully price the deal on the back of positive market sentiments in China and Hong Kong," Khazanah's Managing Director Azman Mokhtar said.

The sukuk will be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, Labuan International Financial Exchange Inc and Bursa Malaysia.

Khazanah said in a statement that the transaction drew a final demand of 5.5 times book size, and 78 investors comprising long only funds, hedge funds, arbitrage funds and asset managers across Asia and Europe subscribed to the sukuk.

CIMB and J.P. Morgan are the joint bookrunners and joint lead managers for the transaction. (Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)