Colombia’s state-run oil firm Ecopetrol sold one trillion pesos ($517.4 million) in local bonds Wednesday, with demand reaching three times as high.
Javier Gutierrez, the company’s president, said the funds will be used to finance the company’s investment plan for 2010.
The bonds are indexed to inflation and have maturities of five, seven, 10 and 30 years, Ecopetrol said in the bonds’ prospectus.
The five-year bonds carry a coupon of inflation plus 2.80%, the seven-year bonds of inflation plus 3.30%, the 10-year bonds of inflation plus 3.94% and the 30-year bonds of inflation plus 4.90%.
The COP1 trillion bond sale marks a record for Colombian corporate debt issues, local brokerage firm, Serfinco, said in a research note earlier in the week. Total corporate bond sales this year in Colombia are expected to reach COP11.3 trillion, Serfinco said.
Colombian bonds have benefited from high liquidity and investors’ appetite for local bonds as the country’s sovereign debt could receive investment-grade status next year.
