Reuters AlertNet Lite - New vaccine bond issues planned for 2008

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New vaccine bond issues planned for 2008

28 Nov 2007 12:13:00 GMT
Source: Reuters

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Further bond issues to fund life-saving vaccines for children in poor countries are planned for 2008 but they will not be on the scale of last year's $1 billion inaugural offering.

Alan Gillespie, chairman of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), said on Wednesday the global group was also looking to diversity its fund-raising.

"We would expect to access the capital markets in 2008, probably nowhere on the scale of what we did last year at $1 billion, because that really covered two years of borrowing requirements," he told reporters in a conference call.

"We would seek to diversify our sources by perhaps doing a series of smaller transactions across different markets," Gillespie added.

Last year's issue, the first of its kind, proved a notable success as investors bid for almost twice the amount of securities on offer.

The issue of bonds in November 2006 marked the start of a 10-year initiative to provide finance for fighting preventable diseases like polio and measles. The goal is to immunise 500 million children by 2015.

The scheme is based on the idea of using aid pledges as collateral to raise funds. It has run into obstacles in the United States, however, which is reluctant to make commitments under one administration that must be passed on to the next.

Last year's bond, which carried a top-notch triple A credit rating, was priced to yield a premium of 31 basis points over the equivalent U.S. Treasury note, reflecting the healthy demand. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler)

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Last updated:Wed Nov 28 12:11:36 2007