Turkey Raises $2.25 Billion in First Post-Quake Debt Sale

Turkey borrowed $2.25 billion in its first international bond offering following last month’s devastating earthquakes.

(Bloomberg) —

Turkey borrowed $2.25 billion in its first international bond offering following last month’s devastating earthquakes.

The Treasury and Finance Ministry said it sold dollar-denominated bonds maturing March 14, 2029 at a yield of 9.5%. The sale was more than three times oversubscribed, according to the ministry’s statement.

Around 200 investors bid for the bonds, it said, with 35% sold to investors in the UK, 21% in the US, 19% in Turkey, 14% in Europe and 10% in the Middle East. 

Damage from the quakes has added to economic strains in a country already struggling with slowing growth and rampant inflation ahead of elections in May, when the country’s longest-serving leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will seek another five-year term.

Turkey’s most recent approach to international debt markets also came after more hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whose indication of an acceleration in U.S. interest rate rises triggered an increase in emerging markets’ borrowing costs.

Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Ministry said on Wednesday it hired Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co for the sale.

Turkey has so far this year secured $5 billion from international debt markets through two deals, half of its target of $10 billion for 2023. It raised $11 billion via global bond sales in 2022.

(Updates with Treasury confirmation in second paragraph, details in third.)

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