Bangladesh is preparing to raise between $500 million and $1 billion through its maiden foreign-currency sovereign bond sale within the next three months, a senior government official said. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is slated to manage the upcoming issue, Tanvir Shahriar Ghani, special assistant to the prime minister for investment and capital market affairs, said in an interview on Saturday night. The bond sale plan needs final approval from Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.

The debt sale comes as developing nations navigate higher global borrowing costs following recent rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve. That backdrop is shaping how Dhaka approaches pricing, said Ghani, who heads the government’s bond issuance committee. "The interest rates have gone up by 25 basis points, which will have an impact on emerging market rates. We are just going to be cautious about what the pricing is, and based on that we will proceed," he said.

While the government is balancing its financing needs, it remains "sensitive to the cost of capital," according to Ghani. Appetite for the country’s debut global debt offering appears robust following unofficial meetings with institutional investors in Europe last week. "The interest level is extremely high for sovereign bonds," Ghani said, adding that the government’s subsequent engagements in New York were also strictly focused on institutional investors. Ghani declined to share further specifics regarding the transaction structure, saying that there are certain "legal issues" surrounding the deal that must be taken "seriously."Bangladesh’s central bank had first floated the idea of issuing debt to foreign investors in 2012 and the government revisited it later but it never materialized.