Treasury mandates banks for bond issue

ANKARA

Turkey’s Treasury has mandated international banks for the first bond issue since March, when it raised $1 billion through its dollar-denominated April 2029 bond.

“As part of the 2019 external borrowing program, the Treasury and Finance Ministry has mandated BNP Paribas, Citigroup and HSBC for the issuance of a dollar-denominated bond due 2024,” the ministry said in a statement yesterday without providing other details on the issuance.

The planned Eurobond issue would offer buyers around 6.65 percent interest, bankers involved told Reuters.

The Treasury has already borrowed a total of $6.42 billion this year through Eurobond and lease certificate issuances.

The authority’s external borrowing target for 2019 is $8 billion.

At the March issuance, the bond had a coupon rate of 7.625 percent and a yield to investors of 7.15 percent.

The offering attracted an orderbook of approximately three times the actual issue size.

Some 39 percent of the bonds were sold to investors in the U.S., 34 percent in the U.K., 17 percent in Turkey, 7 percent in other Europe, and 3 percent in other countries.