Singapore telecoms firm Singtel has issued a $100 million US dollar denominated tokenized bond on the ADDX digital securities exchange. UOB, Singapore’s third largest bank, was the lead manager.
The five-year sustainability-linked bond is issued by Singtel Group Treasury, a wholly-owned Singtel subsidiary.
“The market now is trending towards asset tokenisation and there is an increasing interest from our clients to digitalise their assets,” said Frederick Chin, Head of Group Wholesale Banking and Markets, UOB.
“Singtel’s move to tokenise its entire US$100 million sustainability-linked bond issuance shows that like-minded issuers are keen to tap the benefits of blockchain technology for greater security and smart contracts for better efficiency.”
This isn’t Singtel’s first tokenization experience. A year ago today, HSBC co-led Singtel’s tokenized S$1 billion perpetual securities issuance on the Marketnode platform, a joint venture between SGX and Temasek, both backers of ADDX. However, that tokenization was a blockchain pilot, with the bond issuance additionally following a traditional process.
Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, has also launched a blockchain tokenization platform and issued a bond for itself.
Meanwhile, ADDX (formerly iSTOX) had $150 million in transactions on its platform in 2021, targeting bonds, funds and equities. Asian, European and non-US American high net worth individuals made up the majority of investors. Several of its recent transactions have tokenized funds including real estate.
Apart from SGX and Temasek’s Heliconia Capital, other investors in ADDX include Tokai Tokyo Finance and Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management.
