FOR PRESS: PM> 9/ 1963
NEW CO. MKONWVFALTHT C! ASVF AIUSJ T.
Statement by the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies
A new Commonwealth cash and conversion loan will
open for subscription on Thursday, October
Announcing this today, the Prime : inister and
Chairman of the Australian Loan Council ( Sir Robert Menzies)
said that the target for the cash loan will be œ 60 million.
The securities to be offered in both the cash and conversion
loans will have the same interest rates and maturity dates as
those offered in the July 1963 cash loan but, in line with
S the slight fall in yields which has occurred on the market
since then, the prices at which the securities will be issued
will be slightly higher than in July.
0 The three securities which will be offered in the
cash and conversion loans are as follows:-
4-per cent July 1986 securities issued at par.
4 per cint October 1973 secuirities issued at
œ 99/ 12/ 6 to yield approxinlatJ.. y œ 4.5.11 per cent.
per cent Jul. y 1966 secrLtzcs issued at
œ 99/ 17/ 6 to yi& ld approxij.:-atcly œ 3.16.0 per cent.
Sir Robert noted that the last occasion on which
long-term securities had been issued in a Commonwealth loan with
S a yield of œ 4/ 10/ 0 per cent was in the November 1955 cash and
conversion loan. He recalled that the 1986, 1973 and 1966
securities offered yields of œ 4/ 11/ 1 per cent, œ 4/ 7/ 5 per cent,
and œ 3/ 17/ 8 per cent respectively when they were issued in the
July 1963 cash loan. Subscriptions to that loan totalled
œ 74.5 million. In the case of the July cash loan, the Loan Council
adopted an experiment whoruby the loan remilned open for eight
days only. As this arrangement proved succaessful, and did not
appear to cause any inconvenience to investors, it will be
continued for the new cash loan, which will close on Thursday,
-2-
October 17. The conversion loan will open on Tuesday,
October Special Bonds Series I, which came on issue on H'. ay
16 last, will continue to be available for subscription until
further notice. Sir Robert invited holders of œ 144.3 million 3-8p1e r
cent securities maturing on October 15 to convert their investments
into the new loan securities or into Special Bonds Series
I. The maturing securities were offered for subscription in
1949, and are widely held throughout the community.
The minimum subscription to the Commonwe~ alth loan and
0 to Special Bonds Series I will be œ 10, and there will be, as
before, a limit of œ, 10,000 on overall holdings by any person or
institution of Special Bonds Series A-I combined.
The usual income tax rebate of in the œ will apply
to interest from the new loan securities and from Special Bonds
Series I included in taxable income. Those and other detailed
terms and conditions for the new loan are set out fully in
prospectuses which are now being circulated to all banks and
0 stockbrokers, and will also be explained further in newspaper
advertisements. Canberra, A. C. T.
1st October, 1963.