BULGARIA SELLS 35M EURO TREASURY NOTES

Bulgaria's Finance Ministry has sold five-year Treasury notes worth 35 million euro at an auction held on September 26 2011, the ministry's media office said.

The offering produced an average weighted annual yield of 3.90 per cent, the lowest rate achieved on this issue since its launch in March 2011, when the yield stood at 4.16 per cent.

Although the coverage ratio reached 1.91 and the transaction drew the interest of both primary dealers such as banks and institutional investors, the ministry decided not to increase the bond volume.

Following the re-opening, the debt issue now aggregates 109 million euro.

The approved yield at the auction is below that of euro-denominated bonds with similar remaining maturity of Lithuania (4.20 per cent), Turkey (4.80 per cent) and Hungary (6.25 per cent).

"Given the uncertainty in the financial markets in Europe caused by the crisis of sovereign debt markets in the euro area countries, the auction secured high interest, with the total nominal value of bids received reaching nearly 67 million euro, which led to a record fifth straight decline in the yield of Bulgarian government bonds," the statement said.