UK investors buy 20% of €5bn Greek bond issue

UK investors bought a fifth of the €5bn 10-year bonds sold by Greece yesterday.

While Greek investors purchased 23% of the total issuance, foreign investors were led by the UK at 20% and Germany with 14%.

Fund managers snapped up 39% of the issuance, followed by banks and insurance/pension investors with 24.5% each.

"The transaction saw strong support from domestic investors but it was decided to contain (the domestic tranche) under 25% after allocations," bookrunners HSBC, Nomura NBG,
Piraeus Bank and Barclays Capital said in a statement to Reuters.

"Regarding international investors, the bulk of the demand came from the UK and Germany and the rest was well distributed throughout Europe."