Pakistan aims to raise 20 bln rupees in bond auction

KARACHI, March 15 (Reuters) - Pakistan's central bank said on Saturday it planned to raise 20 billion rupees ($318.2 million) through an auction of long-term government bonds this month.

The State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement it planned to reopen an Aug. 22, 2007, issue of 3-, 5- and 10-year Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) on March 29.

It would also re-open an Oct. 31, 2006, issue of 15- and 20-year PIBs, in addition to reopening a Dec. 22. 2006, issue of the 30-year bond.

Settlement will be on March 31.

The 3-, 5-, 10-, 15- and 20-year PIBs will carry annual coupons of 9.1, 9.3, 9.6, 10 and 10.5 percent respectively, while the 30-year paper carries a coupon of 11 percent.

This will be the sixth PIB auction by the government in the 2007/08 fiscal year, which began on July 1.

In the last PIB auction on Jan. 29, the central bank sold 10.82 billion rupees worth of the bonds after receiving total bids worth 15.56 billion rupees.

It set a cut-off yield of 10.8503 percent and weighted average yield of 10.7763 percent on the benchmark 10-year PIB.

Pakistan launched its first long-term PIBs in December 2000 to tap institutional investment and set a benchmark for corporate yields. It issued a 30-year bond for the first time in December 2006. (S1 = 62.86 Pakistani rupees) (Reporting by Sahar Ahmed)