The following announcement is being made in Canada today by A.E. Ames & Co. Limited, Wood, Gundy & Company Limited and Dominion Securities Corporation Limited:
"Announcement is made that the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, generally known as the World Bank, is planning to offer shortly in the Canadian market an issue of 25-year Canadian dollar bonds. While the terms of the issue have not been finally established it is anticipated that the bond will be dated March 15, 1966 and will mature March 15, 1991. The issue will be offered by a large group of investment dealers and banks headed by A.E. Ames & Co. Limited, Wood, Gundy & Company Limited and Dominion Securities Corporation Limited.
"This will be the fifth issue of World Bank bonds offered in the Canadian market. The last issue was $25 million 5-1/4 per cent bonds issued about a year ago. The four issues previously offered aggregated $80 million Canadian funds of which, after giving effect to retirement through maturities and sinking funds, approximately $44 million are now outstanding. World Bank bonds are held by Canadians of all types from the large institutional. Investor to the private individual.
"The principal function of the World Bank is to assist in the development of its member countries by making loans to finance productive projects. To support its lending operations the Bank obtained its funds from a variety of sources but principally from its capital subscriptions and borrowings. The funded debt of the Bank is presently about $2.7 billion. Since the beginning of its operations in 1946, the Bank has made over 400 loans aggregating over $9 billion to finance more than 1,000 projects in 77 countries or territories."
