$40m bond oversubscribed by $285,000

The Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ $40.0 million 10-year bond issue, which was auctioned on the Regional Government Securities Market on Friday,{{more}} April 27, 2012 using the primary market platform of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange (ECSE), was oversubscribed by $285,000.

A release from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said a competitive uniform price auction methodology was used and the closing rate was 7.5 per cent. Three licensed intermediaries placed a total of 20 bids, ranging from $10,000 to $10.0 million with an aggregate value of $40,285,000.00 million.

“The success of the bond issue reflects the public’s confidence in the RGSM and in particular securities issued by the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Indeed our monthly issues of Treasury Bills have been well supported and are usually oversubscribed,” the release, issued on Monday, April 30, said.

“The proceeds from this issue will be used to finance projects in the Public Sector Investment Programme in accordance with our macroeconomic programmes as contained in the 2012 Estimates. Some of the projects to be financed include: improvement of Education through ICT, upgrading of the Administrative Centre, Population and Housing Census, Upgrade of the Fire Service, Rehabilitation of the Windward Highway, the completion of the Medical Complex and the completion of the Customs and Excise building.

“The next major activity (apart from the monthly treasury bills) would be the Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the Bank of St Vincent and the Grenadines scheduled for June this year. Under this IPO the GOSVG would be offering for sale two million shares of the BOSVG at a price of approximately $8.65 per share,” the release said.