Bulgaria To Auction Additional 30 Mln Levs in 10-Yr T-notes on High Investor Interest

The central bank, which auctions government papers on behalf of the ministry, sold a 30 million lev issue of 10-year T-notes on Monday as the issue was more than three times oversubscribed. The T-notes yielded an average 7.27%, down from the 7.99% yield achieved at the previous auction in July.

"The Finance Ministry considers investor interest to be a direct consequence of growing confidence in the government's policy course," the ministry said in a statement.

The share of institutional investors bidding for the issue exceeded one-third of the total bids placed in the auction, the ministry added.

The Wednesday issue will bear an annual interest rate of 4.95%, with the last coupon payment due upon maturity on January 28, 2019, the Bulgarian National Bank said in a separate statement on Tuesday.

The Wednesday issue will be the sixth batch of 10-year T-notes worth up to 350 million levs which the Finance Ministry plans to offer this year. The first issue, auctioned in January, yielded an average annual 7.21%, the second issue, sold in April, produced an annual yield of 7.11% on average and the third batch, auctioned in May, produced an average yield of 7.47% as the issue was slightly oversubscribed. The fourth batch offered in July yielded an average 7.99%.

(1 euro=1.95583 Bulgarian levs)