Washington, DC, May 2, 2001 – The World Bank increased the size of its recent 3-year 4.75% USD global bond today by another USD 1 billion, bringing its outstanding size to USD 4 billion. The transaction was driven by the success of the initial USD 3 billion bond launched last week, that has since outperformed against comparable benchmarks. The secondary market performance for this liquid benchmark notes is supported by strong bids for the bonds globally in Asia, North America, and Europe, and from a diverse investor base: central banks, fund managers, commercial banks and others.
The joint lead-managers for the USD 1 billion increase were JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg, who also jointly lead-managed the original tranche. Pricing was at 69 basis points over the new 4% US Treasury due April 2003.
This is the second USD 4 billion bond that the World Bank has issued this year. The first one was issued on March 21, 2001 and has consistently outperformed the market. With this second USD 4 billion issue, the World Bank is providing investors with current coupon benchmark bonds in a different maturity to meet investor demand for liquid AAA-rated securities.
3-Year World Bank Benchmark Bond
Washington, DC, April 25, 2001 - The USD 3 billion 3-year World Bank global bond was priced today. The bond builds on the success of the 5-year global bond launched last month. The new benchmark bond was issued in response to demand for high grade fixed income securities in short-term maturities.
Despite the surprise 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve last week, market participants expect further rate cuts. This sentiment and the equity market weakness supported the positive market environment for this bond.
The 3-year securities offer investors a semi-annual interest coupon of 4.75% and mature on April 30, 2004. At the time of launch, the bond was priced at 66 basis points over the 4.25% 2-year US Treasury due March 2003.
JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg were joint-lead managers for the transaction and were allocated 88% of the bonds. Other members of the syndicate were CSFB, Daiwa, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, RBC, Salomon Smith Barney, Sanwa, and Charles Schwab.
The total order book was well in excess of USD 4 billion, substantially exceeding the supply. Investor participation was very broad. Asian investors bought 40 percent, investors in the Americas and Europe each took 30%.The distribution among investor types was: 45% central banks and government entities; 35% fund managers; 11% banks and 9% others (pension funds, insurance companies, retail and corporate buyers).
Following the pricing at about 9:30 a.m. New York time this morning, the issue quickly tightened in the secondary market by about 1.5 basis points relative to the yield of comparable benchmark notes.
"After our successful 5-year transaction, we looked for an opportunity to offer our investors a liquid 3-year bond. Demand for this maturity was strong across all major investor segments. The bond was significantly oversubscribed and is trading well in the secondary market." said C.K. Teng, Lead Specialist for Capital Markets at the World Bank.
The World Bank's bond products and investor presentation can be accessed through the website of the World Bank for bond investors (www.worldbank.org/debtsecurities).
