The World Bank announced a simultaneous five-currency borrowing totaling about $273 million from a UNICO-affiliated group of European and Japanese cooperative banks. The average life of the borrowings will be seven years.
It is the World Bank's fourth multi-currency borrowing from and its ninth transaction with the UNICO group of cooperative banks.
The borrowing is being coordinated by the Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank (DG-Bank) in Frankfurt. It consists of:
- a private placement of DM 250 million ($122 million), with a coupon of 5-3/4 percent, at par, and a final maturity of seven years for a yield of 5.67 percent (all yields are stated on a semi-annual equivalent basis);
- a private placement of Dutch guilders totaling £. 100 million ($43 million), with a coupon of 5-3/4 percent, at par, and a final maturity of five years for a yield of 5.67 percent;
- a private placement of Belgian franc notes amounting to BF 2 billion ($47 million), with a coupon of 7-1/2 percent, an issue price of 99-1/8, and a final maturity of eight years for yield of 7.51 percent;
- a private placement of Yen 5 billion ($32 million), with a coupon of 5.65 percent, at par, and a final maturity of seven years for a yield of 5.57 percent; and
- a private placement of Austrian schilling notes amounting to AS 400 million ($28 million), with a coupon of 7 percent, an issue price of 99.5, and a final maturity of eight years for a yield of 6.96 percent.
The World Bank expects to swap all or part of the Belgian franc borrowings into low-nominal cost currencies.
