The pricing and maturity of the World Bank's new $1.5 billion five-year global bond offering was announced this morning. The U.S. dollar issue was launched yesterday simultaneously in the Euromarkets and in the U.S. and the Japanese domestic markets. The bonds have a 5-7/8 percent coupon, payable semi-annually. They were offered at 99.425 percent, to yield 6.01 percent, for a spread of five basis points (hundredths of l percent) over the Treasury benchmark.
"Strong international demand for the issue underscores investor appreciation of the credit, liquidity, and management group dedication that is the hallmark of our global products," stated Jessica P. Einhorn, World Bank Vice President & Treasurer. The issue has the tightest spread over the Treasury benchmark the Bank has ever achieved at this maturity.
"The highly professional efforts," said Mrs. Einhorn, "of our joint lead managers and the other members of the management group contributed substantially to the success of this issue." The group consisted of: IBJ International Limited and Merrill Lynch & Co. as joint book running lead managers; the other members are CS First Boston Group, Daiwa Securities, Deutsche Bank Capital Markets Limited, Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, Nomura Securities, Salomon Brothers Inc., S.G. Warburg Securities, Swiss Bank Corporation, and UBS Phillips & Drew Securities Limited.
