AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan issued $2.5 billion of 10-and 30-year bonds yesterday in what was the nation’s first dollar-denominated overseas sale since 2000.

Kazakhstan sold $1.5 billion of 10-year dollar bonds to yield 1.5 percentage points above midswaps and $1 billion of 30-year debt at 2 percentage points over midswaps, according to Bloomberg data.

Kazakhstan drew bids for $11 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak publicly.

With a BBB+ rating from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, the third-lowest investment grade, Kazakhstan is returning to debt markets after a more than 14-year break to benefit from lower borrowing costs.

The nation comes to the market after the International Capital Market Association changed sovereign bond contracts to prevent a repeat of the wrangling that has marred restructuring of Argentina’s debt.

“Our primary objective was to set a sovereign benchmark that fairly reflects years of progressive economic reforms, strength of the government balance sheet and our focus on further diversification of the economy,” Bakhyt Sultanov, the nation’s finance minister, said in an e-mailed statement. “We established a proper, liquid and long term sovereign curve to be used by new investors that we would welcome to the country.”