LJUBLJANA: Slovenia was the first European Union country to test the market in 2019, with its sale on Monday of a 10-year benchmark bond to the value of 1.5 billion euros ($1.72 billion) being more than twice oversubscribed, the finance ministry said.
The bond carries an annual coupon interest rate of 1.1875 percent and was sold at a price of 99.785 percent, it added, saying the issue was well oversubscribed with bids exceeding 3 billion euros.
Banks and treasuries together purchased 38 percent of the bond, followed by fund managers with 31 percent, it said.
Investors from Britain and Ireland together purchased 41 percent of the bond, followed by investors from Germany and Austria that jointly bought 17 percent. Slovenian investors bought 9 percent of the bond.
Last month the ministry said Slovenia will borrow at least 2.1 billion euros in 2019 to cover its budget needs while it could borrow more than that to prefinance budget needs in 2020 and 2021, providing that market conditions were favourable.
The country expects public debt to fall to 64.4 percent of GDP this year down from some 70 percent in 2018.
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