ATHENS, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Greece reopened on Wednesday the 15-year bond it had issued in late January 2020, hoping for a reduced interest rate as its yields have this month dropped to record lows.
"We are expecting a good yield with a low-interest rate," Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told the Greek Parliament on Tuesday.
Greece opened its books for the re-issue on Wednesday with the guidance of around 1.28 percent. The original issue, the first in 2020, i.e. before the coronavirus pandemic reached Greece, had an interest of 1.91 percent. Greece collected 2.5 billion euros (2.95 billion U.S. dollars) then.
"We aspire to achieve an interest below what we had last time," said Staikouras, after Greece's benchmark 10-year bond yield dropped to historic lows earlier in October.
In a bourse filing on Tuesday, Greece's Public Debt Management Agency announced that the country had mandated BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Goldman Sachs International Bank, HCBC and JP Morgan to operate as joint lead managers for the reopening of the sovereign bond maturing on Feb. 4, 2035.
This is Greece's fifth market foray this year, during which it has already collected 10 billion euros, plus another four billion euros from treasury bill auctions. (1 euro = 1.19 U.S. dollars) Enditem
