Germany received more than 18 billion euros ($21.3 billion) of investor demand for a new 30-year bond on Wednesday, according to memos from two lead managers seen by Reuters.

The bond, due Aug. 15 2052, will price to offer a spread of 3 basis points over Germany's outstanding bond due Aug. 15 2050, according to the memos, down from around 4 bps when the sale started earlier on Wednesday.

It will raise 5.5 billion euros, of which 500 million euros will be retained by the German finance agency, a lead manager said on Tuesday. 

This is Germany's second syndicated debt sale this year, after it sold a 30-year green bond, for financing environmentally-beneficial projects, in this format in May. 

In syndicated debt sales, a borrower hires investment banks to sell the debt directly onto end investors, allowing it to reach a bigger investor base and raise a bigger size.

Germany, which rarely issued debt through syndications in the past, started issuing bonds more regularly in this format last year as its funding needs ballooned due to the coronavirus crisis.

The euro zone's benchmark bond issuer hired Barclays, BofA, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and UniCredit to sell the new bond.

($1 = 0.8463 euros)

(Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli and Dhara Ranasinghe; editing by Sujata Rao and Emelia Sithole-Matarise) ((Dhara.Ranasinghe@thomsonreuters.com; +442075422684;))