Brussels, 19/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 25 March, the European financial stability mechanism will grant Portugal €1.6 billion and Ireland €800 million.
This will be the final raising of cash on the money markets by the EFSF for Ireland, because its aid programme ended in December 2013. It will be the penultimate raising of cash for Portugal, which will exit its aid programme in May (see EUROPE 11039). The yield on these ten-year bonds is below 2% and the funding costs will be passed on to the beneficiary countries without any margin.
Geographically, Germany/Austria had the highest allocation with 45% of the bonds, followed by the UK/Ireland (6%), France (6%), Benelux (3.5%), Switzerland (3%), and the Nordic countries (3%). 33% was allocated to Asia. In terms of investor type, bank treasuries were in the lead with 46.5% of the allocation, followed by Central Banks/Official Institutions (34%), fund managers (11%), insurance/pension funds (6%) and private banks (2%).
In 2014, the European financial stability mechanism is planning to raise a further €4 billion in bonds, including up to €2 billion under the macro-financial assistance (MFA) programmes which include Ukraine. (MB)