A guilder bond issue of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development will be offered for public subscription in the Netherlands on May 17, 1968 by a syndicate of Dutch banks. The banks will offer f. 40,000,000 (approximately $11 million equivalent) of 6-3/4% Twenty Year Bonds at a price to be announced in Dutch evening papers on May 14. The General Bank of the Netherlands (Algemene Bank Nederland N.V.) heads the underwriting group as it has done for previous public offerings of the World Bank on the Netherlands market.
The new issue of 6-3/4% Netherlands Guilder Bonds of 1968 will be dated June 15, 1968 and will have a final maturity of June 15, 1988. Beginning June 15, 1979, the issue will be retired at par in ten equal annual installments of f. 4,000,000 each. In addition, the Bank will have the right to redeem in whole or in part at 101-1/2% from June 15, 1979 through June 14, 1983 and thereafter at 101%. Application will be made to list the Bonds on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
This will be the fifth public offering of World Bank bonds in the Netherlands. Three issues of f.40 million each were offered in 1954, 1955 and 1962 and on issue of f.50 million was offered in 1961. Giving effect to the current offering outstanding guilder bonds of the World Bank will amount to f.156 million, (about $43 million equivalent). Total outstanding funded debt of the Bank amounts to about the equivalent of $3.4 billion of which roughly 55% is held by investors outside the United States. Included in the outstanding obligations are about $2.6 billion denominated in U.S. dollars and the equivalent of about $800 million denominated in eight other currencies.
