Retail and wholesale investors submit €542.7m in bids for November MGS issuance

The Treasury has published the final allocation figures for the November 2025 Malta Government Stock (MGS) issuance, confirming total investor demand of €542.7 million across retail and wholesale bids. The planned issuance stood at €350 million, with flexibility to increase by €100 million.

The latest data provides further clarity on the final government bond offering of the year, which market analyst Edward Rizzo recently described as part of “a truly busy time for the domestic bond market,” noting that the Treasury ultimately raised €426 million from this issue – “€24 million below the total permitted issuance of €450 million indicating the aggressive auctions placed by institutional investors.”

Non-professional investors submitted 3,134 applications amounting to €103.24 million, all of which were accepted at the fixed price.

Allocations were as follows:

• 2.55 per cent MGS 2030 (V) – €20.91m
• 3.40 per cent MGS 2035 (IV) FI – €41.69m
• 3.80 per cent MGS 2040 (II) FI – €40.64m

Mr Rizzo noted that retail demand of €103 million was “a decline from the amounts subscribed in both February and July of this year,” but added that it remained “in line with the allocation during the three offerings in 2024.” He stressed that this must also be assessed “within the context of the unprecedented issuance in recent weeks across the corporate bond market totalling just over €350 million as well as the very short offer period typical of MGS’s of less than a week.”

The competitive auction attracted €439.5 million in wholesale offers, of which €323 million were accepted:

• 2.55 per cent MGS 2030 (V) – €106m allocated
• 3.40 per cent MGS 2035 (IV) FI – €130.5m
• 3.80 per cent MGS 2040 (II) FI – €86.5m

Mr Rizzo highlighted the increased presence of international credit institutions in this round, stating that “there was strong demand by international credit institutions (banks) with allocations totalling €166 million.” He added that this contrasted with local banks’ behaviour, explaining: “the most popular instrument by the foreign banks was the 15-year bond with a total allocation of €82 million… Incidentally, there were no bids lodged by local credit institutions for the 15-year MGS.”

This trend, Mr Rizzo observed, is consistent with a longer-term shift: “as at end of 2024, the amount of MGS held by international investors amounted to just over €1.6 billion or 18 per cent of the total MGS in issue of €9.1 billion.”

The Treasury release does not include pricing data, but the statistical annex (published separately) prompted further analysis. Mr Rizzo pointed out that investors bidding below specific thresholds were excluded, noting that “bids totalling €51.5 million were not accepted” in the 5-year bond because they came in below the cut-off price of 98.23 per cent.

He also emphasised that institutional pricing came in well below the retail offer price of par (100):

• 5-year bond weighted average: 99.00 per cent
• 10-year bond weighted average: 98.1217 per cent
• 15-year bond weighted average: 97.24 per cent

According to Mr Rizzo, these auction outcomes are “important observations for the investing public,” particularly given the expected MGS issuance for 2026 – forecast at €1.9 billion, with €1 billion needed for refinancing instruments maturing next year.

Mr Rizzo also placed this latest issuance within the full-year landscape: “Following this latest issue, the overall amount of MGS raised this year totals €1.26 billion, a slight increase over the MGS issuance in 2024.”

With institutional participation rising – especially among European banks – and retail inflows stabilising at levels similar to 2024, he notes that it will be “important to gauge participation by retail investors and local institutional investors to understand whether the Treasury will become increasingly reliant on international participation.”