Greece sells 10-year bond issue with record-low interest rate

Greece on Wednesday successfully completed a 10-year syndicated bond issue raising 3.5 billion euros from the market.

The interest rate of the issue was set at 0.8 pct reflecting strong demand by institutional investors (bids exceeded 25 billion euros for the bond).

Finance Minister Christos Sttaikouras, commenting on the results of the book-building process, said “it is the fifth time after the pandemic outbreak that the country successfully drains money from capital markets and it did so with a new record low in borrowing cost for the Greek state, regardless of maturity.” He added that despite increased difficulties and demands, the government manages to preserve the country’s cash reserves at a safe level.

The previous 10-year bond issued by Greek in September 2, 2020 (reopening), carried an interest rate of 1.19 pct. In the domestic electronic secondary bond market, the yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bonds eased to 1.23 pct with the German Bund yielding -0.55 pct. Turnover was 64 million euros, of which 36 million were buy orders.