Greece draws 500 mln euros through bond reopening

ATHENS, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Greece reopened a 10-year bond on Monday, drawing 500 million euros (533 million U.S. dollars) in a bid to expand the liquidity of this benchmark issue, and securing demand more than three times the amount auctioned.

The issue was only open to primary dealers, but was still oversubscribed more than three times, Greece's Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) announced.

It said total bids amounted to 1.595 billion euros, with a 3.19 coverage ratio. The uniform yield secured amounted to 3.61 percent, compared to the original rate of 3.90 percent.

On Friday, PDMA had announced in a bourse filing that "this operation comes to provide additional liquidity on this maturity point of the Greek government bond curve."

This issue is set to mature on January 30, 2033.

Greece has not yet attained investment grade for its sovereign bonds, but Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated on Monday that this is a feasible national target that Greece will achieve by 2023. (1 euro = 1.066 U.S. dollars)