The World Bank has arranged the sale, entirely outside the United States, of a $100 million issue of United States dollar bonds. The sale was made by private placement with 53 institutional investors in 32 countries.
The new bonds will be known as the “Two Year Bonds of 1961”, and will bear interest of 4%, payable semi-annually, with the first payment due on March 15, 1962. The issue is dated September 15, 1961 and matures September 15, 1963.
Keen interest was shown in the new issue and total subscriptions received were more than double the principal amount of bonds to be sold. Purchasers included central banks, government special accounts, and privately owned commercial banks, insurance companies and corporations.
The countries where buyers purchased the new bonds are:
Argentina Ethiopia Israel Norway
Australia Finland Italy South Africa
Austria France Japan Spain
Belgium Germany Libya Sweden
Burma Ghana Luxembourg Switzerland
Cambodia Greece Malaya Thailand
Canada Iceland Mexico United Kingdom
Denmark Iraq Netherlands Viet-Nam
Completion of the current transaction will not affect the total of the Bank's outstanding funded debt, as the new issue replaces an equal amount of Two-Year 4-3/4% Bonds placed outside the United States in September 1959. The total outstanding obligations of the Bank amount to about $2.3 billion of which about $1.7 billion is denominated in United States dollars and some $600 million in Belgian francs, Canadian dollars, Deutsche Marks, Italian Lire, Netherlands guilders, sterling and Swiss francs.
