Pakistan has raised $3 billion through a dual-tranche Eurobond transaction that the Finance Ministry says is the country’s largest international bond issuance in a single deal.
The sale drew nearly $6 billion in orders from institutional investors across global markets, according to the ministry. Pakistan issued $1.75 billion of 5.5-year notes with a 7.5% coupon and $1.25 billion of 10-year notes carrying a 7.9% coupon.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced the completed issuance at an Asian Development Bank event in Islamabad, describing it as a significant external validation of Pakistan’s recent credit-rating upgrades and its return to international capital markets.
The deal is the first issuance under Pakistan’s renewed Global Medium-Term Note programme. The Finance Ministry has framed that programme as a liability-management tool designed to diversify funding, extend maturities and reduce refinancing and rollover risk—not simply as an effort to add new debt.
Five banks—Citi, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD, MUFG and Standard Chartered—served as joint bookrunners, while the Finance Ministry’s Debt Management Office led the transaction.
The size of the order book matters as much as the headline figure: it suggests investors were willing to consider both a medium-term and a 10-year Pakistani sovereign instrument. The coupon rates, however, remain the concrete cost of that renewed market access.
