Romania says ten years dollar bond nearly 5 times subscribed

BUCHAREST: A $1.5 billion sale of 10-year dollar bonds by Romania was nearly five times subscribed, the finance ministry's treasury director said on Friday.

Thursday's issue Romania's first foray onto a foreign debt market since a December parliamentary election that eased political tensions sold at a yield of 4.5 percent, 125 basis points below initial guidance.

That made it the country's cheapest foreign debt issue to date.

"The total order book was a little over $7 billion," Diana Popescu told Reuters.

The bonds are Romania's second dollar-denominated Eurobond on the US market, after it sold $2.25 billion of an earlier issue in two taps at around 6.9 percent and 6.5 percent in the first quarter of last year.