Gov’t sells 10-year dollar bonds

Bloomberg

The 7.5 percent notes priced to yield 447.9 basis points more than similar-maturity U.S. Treasuries, Bloomberg data show. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The government hired Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase for the sale of its first dollar-denominated bonds since January, the Treasury in Ankara said Thursday.

Turkey follows the Czech Republic, the City of Warsaw and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. investment agency this week, pushing sales to $23.8 billion in April, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The government is turning to the capital markets as its negotiations for an International Monetary Fund loan extend into an 11th month.

Turkey sold $1 billion of eight-year global notes at a yield 5.01 percentage points above Treasuries on Jan. 7. The country plans to borrow 5.6 billion liras ($3.5 billion) on international markets this year. Turkish government bonds are rated Ba3, or three steps below investment grade, by Moody’s Investors Service, and an equivalent BB- by Standard & Poor’s. The Czech Republic raised 1.5 billion euros in a sale of bonds Wednesday, priced to yield 1.9 percentage points more than the benchmark mid-swap rate. The country is rated A1 by Moody’s.