Turkey's Treasury holds auctions to borrow over $1.5B

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Treasury borrowed 7.93 billion Turkish liras ($1.66 billion) from domestic markets, according to an official statement Tuesday.

The first auction was held for 2-year fixed coupon bonds (semiannually, re-open, seventh issue), which amounted to 3.19 billion Turkish liras ($672.2 million), the Undersecretariat of Treasury announced.

The government bonds will be settled on Wednesday and mature on Nov. 13, 2019, while the total tender was 7.67 billion Turkish liras ($1.61 billion) with a 41.7-percent accepted/tendered rate.

The interest rate of the 511-day bonds was accepted at a 9.25-percent term rate, with annual simple and compound interest rates of 18.49 and 19.35 percent, respectively.

At Tuesday's second auction, the Treasury borrowed 2.22 billion Turkish liras ($467.4 million) by issuing 6-year floating rate notes (re-open, seventh issue), which will be settled on Wednesday and mature on June 5, 2024.

According to the statement, the total tender for the notes was 3.79 billion Turkish liras ($797.7 million), with a 58.6-percent accepted/tendered rate.

The undersecretariat said the term rate of 2,177-day notes was accepted at 7.86 percent, while annual simple and compound interest rates were 15.71 and 16.33 percent, respectively.

At the last auction on Tuesday, the Treasury issued 10-year fixed coupon bonds (semiannually, re-open, third issue), which amounted to 2.51 billion Turkish liras ($527.9 million). The bonds will be settled on Wednesday and mature on March 8, 2028.

The total tender for the bonds was 4.11 billion Turkish liras ($865.2 million) with a 61-percent accepted/tendered rate.

The Treasury said the interest rate of the 3,549-day bonds was accepted at an 8.14-percent term rate, with annual simple and compound interest rates of 16.28 and 16.94 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Treasury held two auctions for government bonds to borrow a total of 6.72 billion Turkish liras ($1.42 billion) from domestic markets on Monday.

As noted in the undersecretariat's domestic borrowing strategy, a total of 19 auctions is planned to be held from this June till the end of August.