Investors bid N234bn for N150bn bonds offer — DMO

The Debt Management Office (DMO) says the Federal Government’s February bonds received over N234 billion from investors for the N150 billion that was offered.

A statement obtained from the DMO website on Wednesday in Abuja said that the auction had three instruments, for five, seven and 10-year tenors.

“Total bids received from investors for the bonds exceeded N234 billion, with a total subscription level of 156 per cent.

“The focus of investors was principally on the 10-year bond which had a subscription level of 392 per cent.

“Successful bids were allotted at rates notably lower than those at the January auction, with 14.52 per cent for the five year, 14.79 per cent for the seven year and 14.93 per cent for the 10-year bond.”

It added that the DMO allotted the full N150 billion offered to successful bidders across the three tenors.

The statement also said that the oversubscription was a continuos trend, judging from the N197 billion subscription it got for N150 billion offered in January.

However, N116.98 billion was allotted in January.

In a break down of the auction results for February also obtained from the website, the five-year paper had N9.52 billion subscriptions, but N1.50 billion was allotted, the seven-year had N28.85 billion subscriptions, but N12.25 billion was allotted.

However, the 10 year bond which investors showed much preference for had N195.98 billion subscriptions and was allotted N136.25 billion.

Nigeria issues sovereign bonds monthly to support the local bond market, create a benchmark for corporate issuance and fund its budget deficit.