SALT LAKE CITY, April 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Zions Bancorporation announced yesterday that it successfully sold via an online auction nearly $87 million of one-year senior notes with a 4.65% coupon and a weighted average yield of 4.69%. Using the online platform at auctions.zionsdirect.com, a Web site owned and operated by Zions Direct, $6.6 million in notes were sold to institutions and individuals participating in the auction. In addition, more than $67 million of notes were sold using the auction's "Buy Today" feature and nearly $13 million were sold under a distribution agreement with other broker-dealers. The "Buy Today" option allows investors to purchase notes at par without having to compete in the auction bidding process.
W. David Hemingway, executive vice president at Zions, said, "We are pleased with the results of this very successful one-year senior note offering. This was Zions Direct's second successful senior note offering this year and was its 327th successful auction of securities and FDIC-insured certificates of deposit."
Since June 2006, Zions Direct has sold more than $350 million of certificates of deposit and $150 million in securities using its online process. The auction platform is also used to price Zions' innovative employee stock option valuation instrument, ESOARS. Zions Direct is a non-bank subsidiary of Zions First National Bank, which is a subsidiary of Zions Bancorporation.
Zions Bancorporation is one of the nation's premier financial services companies, consisting of a collection of great banks in select high growth markets. Zions operates its banking businesses under local management teams and community identities through more than 500 offices in 10 Western and Southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington. The company is a national leader in Small Business Administration lending and public finance advisory services. In addition, Zions is included in the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Financial 100 indices. Investor information and links to subsidiary banks can be accessed at http://www.zionsbancorporation.com/.
