YEREVAN, October 3. / ARKA /. Armenia’s finance minister David Sargsyan disclosed on Thursday the geography of investors in the first-ever issue of Armenian Eurobonds that netted the government $700 million.

According to him, 42 % of investors are from the U.S., 23 % from the United Kingdom , 17% are from the continental Europe and the remaining 18 % are from other countries.

The Eurobonds were sold on international markets on September 19 at a relatively high yield of at least 6 percent, reflecting Armenia’s “junk” credit ratings assigned by agencies like Moody’s and Fitch. The Armenian finance ministry described the sale as a huge success, saying that investors were ready to buy as much as $3 billion worth of Armenian external bonds. The underwriters are Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Bank plc and JPMorgan Securities plc.

The minister said overall 152 investors bought Armenian Eurobonds, in an indication of international financial community’s confidence in Armenia.

"High demand for Armenian Eurobonds shows that the international financial community appreciated Armenia’s decision to join the Russia-led Customs Union as a reasonable step that will ensure its stability," said Sargsyan .

David Sargsyan said the ministry believes that another issue of Eurobonds may happen in seven years, but added this does not mean that it may not do so in 3, 7 or 10 years. ‘However, given the success of the first issue, I think it logical that the next issue should come in seven 7 years,’ he said. -0-