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October 16, 2003
Venezuela sells $850 mln in
10-year bonds
By Silene Ramírez
(Reuters) - Venezuela sold $850 million
in 10-year international bonds and $380 million
of the reopened issue went to refinancing part
of the oil-rich nation's external debt.
Finance Minister Tobías Nobrega told Reuters
the new offer opened at $300 million, but the
transaction ended at $850 million because of high
demand from investors for the latest debt issue
from the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
The new 2013 bonds were priced at 95.00 with a
yield of 11.608 percent in a deal managed by ABN
Amro. The coupon was 10.75 percent.
"In an operation coordinated with investment
bank ABN Amro, the republic issued $470 million
in cash and also completed an exchange with holders
of debt for $380 million," the Finance Ministry
said In September, the South American nation issued
$700 million in the 2013 bonds with a 12.4 percent
yield after receiving about $2 billion in offers.
The new issues are part of a broader refinancing
effort by Nobrega to ease a concentration of foreign
debt payments.
Investors have mostly welcomed Nobrega's management
of the country's $22 billion in foreign debt and
have also hailed the recovery of the vital petroleum
sector after the December and January strike.
Venezuela returned to the international markets
this year with a issue of $1.5 million in 2010
bonds in August as part of a buyback of its Brady
bonds maturing between 2005 and 2008.
The government on Thursday estimated that it would
refinance about $2.78 billion of its debt either
in the internal or external markets next year.
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