NIB issues new global 1 billion USD bond

NIB has issued a SEC registered global US dollar bond. The joint lead arrangers for the transaction are Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney. Senior co-lead managers are BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank. Co-lead managers are Daiwa Securities, Handelsbanken, Mizuho, Nordea and Tokyo-Mitsubishi. With a size of 1 billion US dollars, the transaction is the largest bond ever issued by NIB. The bond has a maturity date of 11 January 2006 and pays a coupon of 2.75%.

The bond is issued under NIB’s updated US debt issuance programme, established in 1992. In anticipation of the transaction, the programme amount was increased from 600 million US dollars to 3 billion US dollars. The programme was also changed to enable global bonds of this type, with selling and registration with clearing systems both within and outside the USA.