Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citibank NA, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited were selected as Joint Lead Managers, Book runners and Underwriters for the proposed Sovereign Bond issuance, the Central Bank said in a statement.

The Central Bank statement said the appointments have been made after evaluating the proposals received from 8 leading international banks/investment houses to handle the bond issue.

In addition, People's Bank has been selected as the Co-manager to work with the four Joint Lead Managers on matters relating to the proposed Bond issuance.

The Governor of the Central Bank has earlier said that the timing of the deal and its tenure would be decided after seeking the views of the joint lead managers and the size of the issue will be decided by the government.

Sri Lanka's US$1 billion bond offered last year was oversubscribed 7.5 times with orders from 315 accounts. The 10-year global bond was offered at a fixed-rate yield of 6.25%.

Sri Lanka's first US$500 million sovereign bond offered in 2007 is maturing in October 2012.