UPDATE - 'Strong demand for bonds proves confidence in Turkey'

UPDATE WITH MORE DETAILS AND QUOTES FROM THE MINISTRY

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - International market demand for Turkish bonds was more than triple the bonds’ issue size, proving the confidence in Turkey's economic indicators, said Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak on Wednesday.

The strong demand confirms the robustness of Turkey's economic basis, resilience to external shocks, and success of measures taken to date, Albayrak was cited as saying in a statement from his ministry.

According to the Treasury and Finance Ministry statement, "the [bond] offering attracted an order book of more than three times the actual issue size from more than 250 accounts."

The ministry on Tuesday authorized three international institutions -- Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale -- to issue a dollar-denominated bond due 2023, as part of the 2018 external borrowing program.

The transaction was finalized with a nominal amount of $2 billion, it said.

"With this transaction, the amount of funds that has been raised from the international capital markets as part of the $6.5 billion 2018 Eurobond issuance program has reached $6 billion," said the ministry.

The bond, that matures on Dec. 23, 2023, has a coupon rate of 7.25 percent and its yield rate is 7.50 percent for investor.

Most of the bonds were sold to investors from the U.S., followed by the U.K with 23 percent, other European countries with 11 percent, Turkey with 5 percent and other regions with 1 percent.

"This [the result of the auction] has revealed […] our New Economic Program (NEP) has found a strong response by global financial circle," Albayrak said.

He added that, as the government reaches the goals within the scope of NEP and realizes its strategies and policies, the global market's confidence in Turkey will further increase and the country's macroeconomic indicators will reach better levels.