Nigeria sells N93bn in bonds – DMO

Nigeria raised 93 billion naira ($604.3 million) in three, five and 10-year sovereign bonds on Wednesday, at its eighth debt auction of the year, the Debt Management Office said yesterday.
The debt office said it sold 30 billion naira of the three year, 15 billion naira of five year and 25 billion naira of 10-year papers, due to mature in 2014, 2015 and 2018 respectively. All the papers are re-openings of previous issues. DMO said an additional 23 billion naira in the three-year paper were sold to some mandate customers outside the auction.
The 3-year paper was given a marginal rate of 10.75 percent, above 10.24 percent offered last month, while the five-year instruments were allotted at 11.19 percent against 10.70 percent. However, the 10-year papers were allotted at a marginal rate of 11.39 percent, lower than the 11.49 percent at the previous auction.
The Central Bank on July 1, lifted a restriction requiring foreign investors to hold government debt for at least a year, aiming to attract new offshore inflows into sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest economy. “The debt office usually sells bonds to some mandate customers with large volumes of funds outside the auction proper,” an official said.
“If such customers are allowed to participate in the auction, they might crowd out other investors, hence the special allotment outside the usual auction. Total subscription stood at 170.52 billion naira compared to 157.98 billion naira last month, the DMO said.