Ministry of Finance, National Heroes Circle, Kingston. - File

The Finance Ministry has raised US$150 million of new debt in a placement Wednesday that was subscribed within two hours of the issue.

With Deutsche Bank Securities as lead arranger, Finance reopened the offer on Jamaica's longest tenure, the 2039 bond, on which it had raised US$350 million in March at 8.125 per cent.

Wednesday's offer was priced to yield 8.0 per cent.

Don Wehby, Minister without Portfolio in the Finance Ministry, said immediately that the take-up of the offer was a sign of confidence in the new JLP administration by the international markets.

The tenure of the bond, whose total size is now US$500 million, remains unchanged. It will be redeemed in three instalments between 2037 and 2039.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw said the issue was three times oversubscribed, with DBS reporting book orders ranging up to US$550 million.

The funds raised wraps up government's external borrowing programme for the fiscal year.

The target was J$10.4 billion from the capital markets, and J$6.8 billion from multilateral and bilateral sources (US$1=J$70).

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