September 2 (SeeNews) - Slovenia has issued a 15-year 1.5 billion euro ($2.1 billion) benchmark bond, the Finance Ministry said.
"Taking advantage of the positive market environment reflected by the tightening of non core sovereign spreads during the summer and the demand for longer dated securities, the Republic of Slovenia decided to bring to the market a new 15-year government bond benchmark," the Finance Ministry said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.
"Books opened on Tuesday, September 1, at 0945 CET with a spread guidance of MS+85bp area. In one hour only, books exceeded 3.9 billion euro highlighting the strong investor appetite enabling the leads to tighten the spread to MS+80bp and upsize the transaction to 1.5 billion euro," the statement said.
Earlier this month, Slovenia mandated HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking and UniCredit Bank Slovenia to lead-manage their upcoming Euro benchmark issue, taking the opportunity to be the first Euro-zone sovereign to re-open the market after the summer break.
This is Slovenia’s longest dated government bond issue since it joined the Euro-zone in January 2007, highlighting Slovenia’s high quality signature appealing to long-term investors, the statement said. The transaction enables Slovenia to complete its 2009 funding programme and pre-fund part of its 2010 budget requirements.
($=0.7029 euro)
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