Demand for Turkish bonds more than twice issue size

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - International investors’ demand for a new Turkish bond issue was more than double its actual size, said Turkey's Treasury and Finance Ministry on Thursday.

"The offering attracted an orderbook of more than twice the actual issue size from more than 200 accounts," the ministry said in a statement.

Three international lenders -- Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan -- were authorized to issue the U.S. dollar-denominated Turkish bond on Wednesday due in April 2029, as part of the 2019 external borrowing program.

The transaction was finalized with a nominal amount of $2 billion, according to the statement.

The bond has a coupon rate of 7.625 percent, and its yield rate for investors is 7.68 percent.

The largest national share of the bonds was sold to investors from the U.S. -- 40 percent -- followed by Turkey with 27 percent, Britain with 20 percent, various other European countries with 8 percent, and other regions with 5 percent.

"With this transaction, the amount of funds raised from international capital markets as part of $8 billion worth of the 2018 Eurobond issuance program has reached $2 billion," the ministry noted.