Deals of the year 2003: Making brave moves into new markets

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Western Europe

The UK Treasury last entered the offshore capital markets in 1996. However, last year careful monitoring of the markets showed that there was a window to refinance foreign currency reserves more cheaply in the international markets than through gilts.

The Bank of England sought advice from lead managers with a good record. "There is a relatively small group of banks who really specialize in the sovereign/supranational sector, particularly in US dollars," says Christopher Egerton-Warburton, executive director at Goldman Sachs. "The Bank of England did a lot of preparation internally to find a team that they thought would be complementary. They wanted a group of banks who they felt had the strongest distribution capabilities and would work in a cooperative...