Colombia Prices Long Benchmark

Colombia emerged Thursday to price a $1.6bn 2024 bond, allowing the sovereign to issue the maximum remaining under its current budget while tightening 23bp from initial talk and offering 8bp-9bp total new issue premium. The BBB/Baa3 transaction drew more than $6bn in demand. The new benchmark priced at 98.595 with a 4.000% coupon to yield 4.168%, or UST+142bp, tight to the 150bp-area guidance that followed 165bp-area talk. The bond was heard trading up 0.40-0.60 points in the grey late Thursday. More than 260 accounts participated, with 65% participation coming from US buyers, 30% from Europeans, and the remainder from Asia and LatAm. Fund managers were seen taking roughly 75% of the transaction with the rest allocated to other investor types. Deutsche Bank and HSBC led. It was the first dollar bond for Colombia since January, when it sold a $1bn 2023, conceding fewer than 10bp after generating $3bn in demand.