The Administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto has stressed its commitment to consolidate macroeconomic stability, to count with healthy public finances and to make responsible use of public debt. In this regard, and in order to maintain and strengthen public debt’s management communication and transparency, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) announces the government securities auction calendar for the first quarter of 2014. This schedule is consistent with the Economic Program approved by Congress for the 2014 fiscal year and with the 2014 Annual Borrowing Program.

Important Aspects

The most important aspects of the government’s securities issuance strategy for the first quarter of 2014 are:

•       The mechanism used to determine the issuance amount of 28-day and 91-day Cetes, adopted since the 2nd quarter of 2013, will continue to be used during the 1st quarter of 2014. This mechanism consists on announcing each quarter a minimum and a maximum amount to be issued each week.

•       For the first quarter of 2014, the 28-day Cetes issuance amount will range between 5,000 and 9,000 million pesos; while the 91-day Cetes will range between 8,000 and 12,000 million pesos.

•       The specific amount to be issued each week will be specified in the corresponding auction announcement made through the Central Bank.

•       Starting in 2014, syndicated auctions will be conducted through a more flexible format. These operations will no longer be announced as part of the quarterly calendars nor as substitutes of the primary auctions corresponding to that tenor in the quarter.

•       Instead, these auctions could be performed in any of the quarters of the year and the amount to be auctioned may be additional to the quarterly issuance scheduled for that instrument. The announcement of the syndicated auction will be held in the week prior to its issuance.

•       This format will allow the Federal Government to choose the right timing for each transaction based on investors’ appetite and market conditions.

•       The syndicated auctions of stripped 30-year Udibonos will continue to take place every twelve weeks. The amount to be auctioned will be published the week prior to the transaction.

The auctions of Cetes, Nominal Fixed-Rate Bonds, Udibonos, Bondes D and the syndicated auctions of stripped Udibonos to be executed in the first quarter will have the characteristics listed in the following slide.