More than 120 investors had placed orders within 180 minutes of the order book being opened, in what the ministry said was a confirmation of broad interest in Slovenian sovereign debt papers.

The ministry confirmed in a statement issued late on Tuesday that the bonds were sold at a fixed interest rate of 2.125% and at a yield of 2.251%, representing a markup of 147.1 basis points on the German reference bund due in August 2025.

Fund managers were the main buyers, snapping up over two-thirds of the issue, followed by insurance companies and pension funds with 14.4% and banks with 8.9%.

The confirmation of the issue came after the STA had obtained unofficial information that the country sold EUR 1.25bn in bonds early in the evening.

The ministry had initially confirmed only that it named Barclays, Credit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan as lead managers in the issue with Abanka Vipa, Jefferies and NLB as co-managers.

The debt raising operation comes hot on the heels of an improvement in European bond markets following the recent agreement on a new EU-backed bailout for debt-stricken Greece.

This is the second major bond issue this year for Slovenia following a EUR 1bn issue of 20-year bonds with a coupon rate of 1.55% in March. That issue had covered financing needs for this year, while the debt raised on Tuesday will be used for financing of the 2016 budget.