Brussels captures 10,000 million with a ten-year syndicated bond

Brussels, March 22 (.).- The European Commission raised this Tuesday 10,000 million euros in a ten-year syndicated bond in its second debt issue of this type this year from the European post-pandemic recovery fund.

Brussels registered in the operation a demand that was almost six times higher than the amount raised and that reached 59,000 million, the institution reported in a statement.

The bond, due July 6, 2032, has a coupon of 1% and a yield of 1.02% in the secondary market, which represents a negative premium of 15 basis points with respect to the “mid-swap”, that is, 49 basis points above the German bond with the same maturity and 4.5 basis points more than the French bond.

This is the second issue of a syndicated bond this year and the seventh since the European Commission began debt issues linked to the recovery program, with which it has already raised 91,000 million euros.

“Despite challenging market conditions, today we have executed a transaction on favorable terms. This reflects the continued strength of the EU in the market and is further evidence of the EU’s growing role as a benchmark instrument in the market for euro,” said the Budget Commissioner, Johannes Hahn.

Since the beginning of the year, Brussels has already raised 20,000 million euros, which represents 40% of the financing target that the institution has set for the first half of the year, which amounts to 50,000 million.

The Community Executive has already transferred 74,000 million euros to the Member States through disbursements from the recovery fund and at the end of December it had allocated more than 7,000 million to “key” programs of the community budget to advance the green and digital transitions.

Before the end of the semester, the European Commission intends to carry out another three syndicated issues, which will be complemented by auctions of bills with a shorter maturity twice a month.

In addition to the issuance of the recovery fund, Brussels raised another 2,170 million euros in an operation of the SURE program to maintain employment during the pandemic and the funds will now be transferred to Poland, Portugal and Hungary.

(More information on the European Union at euroefe.euractiv.es)