Finance Ministry Places JPY 35 bln in Eurobonds

On its website yesterday, the Government announced plans to sell JPY 35.1 bln in four-year bonds with a 3.2% coupon paying semiannually. The bonds will be offered at 1.2% discount to their par value and will mature on Dec. 19, 2010. Oleksandr Klymchuk: It is the first-ever appearance of a Ukrainian issuer on the Samurai Market. The terms of the issue imply 3.52% YTM, which is 243 bps higher than the secondary market yield of Japanese sovereign securities with a similar maturity. The debut nature of the issue and not very liquid amount of an equivalent of USD 298 mln can partly justify the spread; the gap in government debt redemption payments in 2010 explains the atypical four-year maturity. We don’t rule out another JPY sovereign issue in 2007.