Turkish Treasury holds auctions to borrow $1.86B

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Treasury has borrowed 9.85 billion Turkish liras ($1.86 billion) from domestic markets, according to an official statement Tuesday.

The Treasury and Finance Ministry said the first auction was held for two-year fixed coupon bonds (semiannually, reopen, seventh issuance), which amounted to 5.28 billion Turkish liras ($998 million).

The government bonds will be settled on Wednesday and mature on Aug. 12, 2020, while the total tender for the bonds was 6.8 billion Turkish liras ($1.28 billion) with a 77.7-percent accepted/tendered rate.

The interest rate of the 539-day bonds was accepted at a 8.79-percent term rate, as the annual simple and compound interest rates were 17.57 and 18.34 percent, respectively.

In a second auction on Tuesday, the Treasury borrowed 4.57 billion Turkish liras ($863 million) by issuing five-year CPI-indexed government bonds (semiannually, reopen, second issuance) to be settled on Wednesday and mature on Jan. 10, 2024.

The total tender for the bonds was 5.55 billion Turkish liras ($1.05 billion), with a 82.2 percent accepted/tendered rate.

The ministry said the term rate of 1,785-day bonds was accepted at 1.93 percent, while the annual simple and compound interest rates were 3.86 and 3.89 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Treasury also borrowed 2.56 billion Turkish liras ($483.7 million) from domestic markets by issuing six-month floating rate bonds on Monday.

According to the ministry's borrowing strategy, the Treasury projected to hold nine bond-auctions and a direct sale of lease certificate in the February-April period to borrow some $6.6 billion from domestic markets.