Heavy price for Greece's return to markets

Greece passed the market test successfully on Tuesday, as its 10-year bond issue - for the first time since the country was excluded from the markets in 2010 and entered the bailout mechanism - took advantage of the favorable international climate and the credit rating upgrade by Moody's last Friday.

Offers for the new benchmark bond, which matures on March 12, 2029, exceeded 11.8 billion euros, including offers of 800 million euros from the lead managers (BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and JP Morgan).
The bulk of demand - some 10 billion euros - came in the first hour after the book opened.

Eventually the Public Debt Management Agency drew 2.5 billion euros, the same amount as that drawn in the five-year bond issue at end-January.
This means that 71 percent of the PDMA's borrowing program for 2019 has already been covered.

The...