Despite political woes, Israel still hopes for international bond issue in 2020

Israel is finalising plans for a potential international bond offering in 2020, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday.

The official said a decision to tap global markets would be made in January and that the lack of a 2020 budget is not a problem as Israel heads to an election in March, its third in a year. In the meantime, Israel is being run by a caretaker government.

Israel typically sells bonds every year, alternating between dollar and euro-denominated offerings. In January, it sold 2.5 billion euros in a dual-tranche issue split between 10- and 30-years, a record for Israel on foreign markets.

That would mean an issue in 2020 would be dollar-based.

"Feedback from the banks and from investors is that we still are a good story and they are looking forward to investing money," the official said.

Israel prefers to issue early in the year in the belief pricing is better.

"We are not going to have any issuance if it won't be for a good price and if it won't go along with our debt management needs," the official said, noting he did not expect any impact from the political stalemate on Israel's credit rating.

He added the ministry could potentially sell more than in 2019 but it would depend on financing needs.