Fourth global USD 1bn bond

NIB priced today, on 16 February 2005, a USD 1 billion five-year bond with 15th June 2010 maturity. Lead managers were BNP Paribas, Citigroup and HSBC.

The USD global benchmark is NIB’s fourth USD global benchmark, issued annually since 2002. NIB’s annual USD global issuance represents a rare public markets occasion for global investors to invest in one of the world’s select AAA supranational institutions and, indeed, the only one representing the Nordic and Baltic region. The 2005 NIB funding requirement is some EUR 2.5 billion, equivalent to USD 3 billion.

As has been true in past NIB USD 1 billion global transactions, the new NIB 3.875% June 2010 was executed in a 36-hour book-building period, using pot execution methodology between the leads, culminating in an oversubscribed order book ahead of pricing.

The order book geographical distribution was exceptionally well balanced across USD AAA buying bases: Asia/Japan 44%; United States 34%, Europe/Middle East/Africa 22%. Central banks represented 56% of total orders, followed by investment managers 25%; financial institutions 14%; insurance companies 5%.