Great Eastern Establishes S$1 Billion Bond Program

Great Eastern Holdings Ltd., the insurance company controlled by Singapore’s second-largest bank, set up a S$1 billion ($771 million) multi-currency medium-term note program.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and Morgan Stanley will manage the program, which may lead to sales of senior or subordinated, fixed- or floating-rate notes, according to a statement to the Singapore stock exchange today.

Great Eastern is 85 percent-owned by Oversea-Chinese, Singapore’s second-biggest lender by market capitalization, and hasn’t sold bonds in public markets before, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Borrowers raised S$634 million from local-currency bonds in Singapore this year, with the largest -- S$420 million -- from property owner Savu Investments Ltd., the data show. That compares with S$14 million of sales in the same period of 2010.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sean Collins at scollins14@bloomberg.net Katrina Nicholas in Singapore at knicholas2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will McSheehy at wmcsheehy@bloomberg.net