The Official Credit Institute (Spanish acronym: ICO) has launched the first public issuance of the year, in the amount of 1.25 billion euros, as part of the GMTN (Global Medium Term Note) programme.

This issuance, aimed at institutional investors, will pay a coupon of 1%, the lowest percentage paid by the ICO in public transactions in euros to date. This benchmark issuance, which matures in September 2015, has been led by Barclays, BBVA, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.

The issuance began to be placed in the morning at a price of 15 basis points above the Spanish Treasury bill, this spread being the narrowest in the last 4 years.

The transaction aroused great interest among investors, with demand reaching 1.5 billion euros, which enabled the final amount to be set at 1.25 billion euros.

The transaction enjoyed great international support, in line with the last transactions carried out in 2013. In the end, 13% of the issue was placed in Germany, 12% in Asia and the same percentage in Scandinavian countries, and 5% in Italy.

By type of investor, fund managers have bought up the lion's share of these bonds, 45% to be precise, followed by banks with 28% and central banks with 12%. Meanwhile, insurance companies and private banking took 6% and 5% of the paper respectively.

In 2013, the ICO launched medium- and long-term issuances in the amount of 10.7 billion euros. In 2014, ICO expects to issue paper worth between 9 and 10 billion euros.

distributed by