The MEF announces an auction of the following BOTs for 26 August 2008, with settlement date on 29 August 2008:
| amount (in million euro) | maturity | days | |
| Six-month | 9,500 | 27.02.2009 | 182 |
Please note that on 29 August 2008 BOTs for 9,820 million euro will reach maturity.
BOTs are offered via a competitive auction and without indication of the minimum price by the Treasury.
Treasury bonds are subscribable for a minimum amount of one thousand euro.
The prices indicated by dealers participating in auctions of BOTs, expressed in percentage terms, may vary by 0.001% or multiple thereof. Bids without price reference will not be admitted to auction.
Each bid will not be lower than one and a half million euro.
Dealers set forth in the decrees authorising the issuance of the BOTs are eligible for participation in the auction.
In application of the provisions set forth in Sec.II - Title V of Legislative Decree 24 June 1998, no. 213, and related implementation provisions, on the dematerialization of Government bonds, BOTs are represented by account registrations entered in favour of the entitled.
The Banca d'Italia automatically enters the BOT amounts subscribed at auction and settles them through the clearing and settlement facility for financial instruments, entering the date of settlement as value date. On the basis of allocations, the broker allocatees will credit the related amounts to the subscribers' accounts.
Purchase bids - a maximum of three - must be submitted to the Banca d'Italia strictly by means of the national Interbanking network, within and no later than 11am of 26 August 2008, in accordance with the procedure and provisions set forth in the issuance decrees.
Please note that should there be a malfunctioning of the system, thereby preventing the transmission of messages on the network, requests for participation in the auction must be sent via fax.
Bids received after the deadline set in the issuance decrees will not be considered. Bids in replacement of previously submitted requests will be taken into consideration only if they arrive by the aforementioned deadline. Requests cannot be withdrawn after the aforementioned deadline.
Should any dealer's bids exceed, including as a whole, the amount offered by the Treasury, they will be taken into consideration starting from the one at the highest price, up to the amount offered, unless otherwise provided for in the issuance decrees.
State bond specialists are eligible for participation in the additional placement of six-month BOTs, which is set to take place automatically on 27 August 2008.
The amount of the additional tranche is fixed at 10% of the nominal amount offered in the issuance auction. However, the Treasury may increase the said percentage after the closing of the issuance auction. In that event, a specific press release will be published.
Specialists who did not participate in the issuance auction shall not be eligible to participate in the additional placement.
Allocation will take place at the weighted average price set in the issuance auction.
The additional placement procedure will follow the provisions set forth in the issuance decree. Specifically, purchase bids must be submitted within and no later than 3:30pm of 27 August 2008.
Outstanding BOTs at 15 August 2008 amounted to 159,401,666 million euro, of which 3,000 million euro at 200 days, 3,000 million euro at 165 days, 2,500 million euro at 123 days, 2,500 million euro at 120 days, 2,500 million euro at 92 days, 7,500 million euro at three months, 58,745 million euro at six months and 79,656,666 million euro at twelve months.