A guilder bond issue of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development will be publicly offered in the Netherlands today (August 2) in an amount of f.40,000,000, equal to approximately $10,500,000. This is the second guilder issue of the Bank, a previous public offering of f.40,000,000 having been made on July 12, 1954. An underwriting syndicate of fourteen Dutch banks will offer the current issue to the public at par. The Netherlands Trading Society (Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij, N. V.) will head the underwriting group as it did in the case of the previous offering.
The issue being offered today will be known as the 3 ½ % Netherlands Guilder Bonds of 1955. It will bear interest at 3 ½ % a year payable semiannually on September 1 and March 1, with the first payment due on March 1, 1956. The bonds will be repaid at par in fourteen equal instalments of f.2,640,000 on September 1 in each of the years 1961 through 1974, and a final instalment of f.3,040,000 will be repaid on September 1, 1975. In lieu of bonds drawn by lot, the Bank may credit to annual repayments the principal amount of bonds purchased by it below par on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
On or after September l, 1961, the Bank may redeem all or part of the issue at any time, on not less than sixty days' notice. Prior to September 1, 1966, the redemption price will be 101% and thereafter it will be par. Paying agent for principal and interest on the bonds is the Netherlands Trading Society.
This is the fourteenth issue of bonds sold by the Bank £or currencies other than United States dollars. The principal amount of these sales including the current guilder iss11e is equivalent to about 168 million. A summary of these sales, with amounts expressed in United States dollars, follows:
NON-DOLLAR BONDS SOLD AMOUNT EXPRESSED IN U.S. DOLLARS
Two Netherlands Guilder Issues $21,000,000
Seven Swiss Franc Issues $68,800,000
Three Canadian Dollar Issues $50,100,000
Two Sterling Issues $28,000,000
--------------------
$167,900,000
In this calendar year issues equivalent to about $24 million have been sold by the Bank in Canada and the Netherlands.
The total of World Bank bonds outstanding in currencies other than United States dollars, giving effect to the new guilder issue, is equivalent to approximately $145 million; the equivalent of $9.4 million in Swiss franc bonds and of $13.6 million in Canadian dollar bonds has been repaid.
The Bank also has nine United States dollar issues outstanding in an amount of $705 million; and the new Netherlands issue brings the value of all outstanding bonds up to about $850 million.
