Italians Boost State Coffers in Dash to Buy New Retail Bonds
- First issue of new retail debt class exceeds €18 billion
- Savers tend to buy-and-hold, offering stable source of funding
Palazzo Montecitorio, Italy's parliament building..
Photographer: Alessia PierdomenicoThis article is for subscribers only.
Ordinary Italians answered the call to fund their government as they clamored to buy a new class of bonds designed especially for them.
The nation closed its first placement of the four-year securities called BTP Valore, which raised more than €18 billion, a record amount for a debt offering pitched to retail investors, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. That’s nearly twice the size of an inflation-linked bond targeted at individual savers in March.