Investors rush to take up new Austrian 100-year bond issue

VIENNA: Austria has had an enthusiastic reception from investors after issuing a bond with a 100-year term, the country's treasury said Wednesday, as buyers seek out safe havens in the coronavirus downturn.

While the issue volume for the bond was two billion euros ($2.2 bn), there were 17.7 billion euros' worth of offers, a spokesman for the Austrian treasury told AFP.

A portion of 500 million was reserved for the Austrian state and the yield for the bond was fixed at just 0.88 percent.

State bonds are normally issued for periods of around 10 years, with longer term bonds usually only going up to 30 years.

However, even before the novel coronavirus pandemic investors were increasingly keen on ultra-long "Methuselah" bonds, given the low yields on offer on bonds with shorter terms.

Several major economies were even offering 10-year bonds with a negative yield.

In 2017 Austria became the first eurozone state to undertake a public issue of 100-year bonds.

That issue was also a success, with the Treasury saying at the time it had accepted 3.5 billion euros worth of offers from 208 subscribers.

In June 2019 Austria offered up another tranche of that bond, raising a further 1.25 billon euros.

The global economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus means that investors may be even more willing to support ultra-long-term bond issues.

The IMF said Wednesday that prospects for post-pandemic economic recovery were mired in "pervasive uncertainty" and said that any revival would be slower than first thought.

Government stimulus plans to counter the effects of the pandemic have been fuelled by extremely low interest rates and likely prevented the recession from turning into a depression even as they have created huge and ever-increasing debt levels.