The Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility (“CGIF”), a trust fund of the Asian Development Bank (“CGIF”) is pleased to announce its support for the guaranteed THB 1,300 million 3-year unsubordinated bond issued by Hope Education Group Co., Ltd. (“HEG” or “Issuer”) on 28 September 2023. This transaction marks HEG Group’s debut issuance in Thailand.

The guaranteed bond was successfully placed with domestic institutional investors at a coupon rate of 4.12% p.a. With CGIF’s AAA-rated guarantee, HEG was able to diversify its funding sources and tap long-term inter-ASEAN liquidity to supplement its cross-border capital investments.

Likewise, INTI Universal Holdings Sdn Bhd (“INTI”) has also successfully issued its first RM Bond issuance via a Guaranteed MTN (“Guaranteed MTN”) of RM165.0 million, guaranteed by the Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility (“CGIF”), a trust fund of the Asian Development Bank (“ADB”).

INTI is one of the largest private higher education service providers in Malaysia providing academic education for junior college, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate degree programmes. INTI owns and operates INTI International University Nilai, INTI International College Penang, INTI International College Subang INTI College Sabah. INTI was acquired by Hope Education Group Company Limited (“HEG”) from Laureate Education Inc in 2020. HEG is one of the largest private education groups in China which owns and operates universities, higher education schools, technical colleges and schools in China, Hungary, Thailand and Malaysia.

Both bonds were issued under the ASEAN+3 Multi-Currency Bond Issuance Framework, a policy initiative under the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (“ABMI”) to standardize the bond and note issuance processes and with the goal of strengthening bond market linkages among the ASEAN+3 countries.