ATHENS- Greece raised 2 billion euros ($2.37 billion) on Wednesday by selling a new tranche of an existing 15-year bond, taking advantage of record-low yields on its debt that are underpinned by European Central Bank asset purchases.
Lead managers BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and JP Morgan said the reopening of Greece's 1.875% bond due February 2035 would be priced at 125 basis points over mid-swaps, giving a yield of around 1.17%. That would be the country's lowest-ever cost of bond market funding, undercutting a 10-year debt sale in September.
Greece paid 1.91% to borrow when the same 15-year bond was tapped in January.
"The new tap was not because of funding needs, we have plenty of cash reserves," said a government official, declining to be named. "The main goal was to fine-tune the yield curve, boosting liquidity in the 15-year tenor while taking advantage of favourable market conditions."
Yields of Greek bonds have dropped to record lows in recent months, spurred on by ECB purchases. Last month, it sold a 2.5 billion euro reopening of a 10-year bond at 1.23%, then the least it had ever paid to borrow in the bond market.
Demand for Wednesday's issue topped 16.7 billion euros when books closed.
Greece returned to international bond markets in 2017 after being locked out for years during a decade-long debt crisis from which it finally emerged in August 2018.
(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Catherine Evans) ((george.georgiopoulos@thomsonreuters.com; +30210 337 6437; Reuters Messaging: george.georgiopoulos.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
