The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) raised €4 billion on Wednesday in a dual-tranche transaction and completed its €20 billion funding programme for 2023.
The EFSF raised €2.5 billion in a new long 5-year 3.50% bond, maturing on 11 April 2029. The spread was fixed at mid-swaps plus 7 basis points, for a reoffer yield of 3.55%. The order book was €5.3 billion, including joint lead manager interest of €250 million.
A further €1.5 billion was raised with the reopening of an outstanding 4 September 2034 bond with a coupon of 3.0%. The spread was fixed at mid-swaps plus 25 basis points, for a reoffer yield of 3.782%. The order book was over €3.8 billion, including joint lead manager interest of €250 million.
“Post-summer investors have been more cautious in primary markets and we therefore chose an approach which combined different investor interests via a dual-tranche. We added to the new EFSF April 2029, the tap of the outstanding EFSF September 2034 bond which carries an on-the-run coupon and was issued in 2013, and sized the two tranches based on the good quality investor demand we received,” said Silke Weiss, EFSF Head of Funding and Investor Relations.
The joint lead managers were Barclays, Citi and Deutsche Bank.
The EFSF is rated AA (S&P, negative)/Aaa (Moody’s, stable) /AA- (Fitch).
The EFSF is the sister borrower and predecessor of the ESM. The EFSF continues to issue bonds as part of rollover management of existing loans but cannot provide new loans.
