Over the years, various countries have issued ultra-long bonds with terms in excess of the 30 year period which has typically marked the upper bound of a “normal” maturity length.
The British governments issued consolidated annuities or “consols” in the eighteenth century. They had no maturity date and thus paid interest theoretically forever or until repurchased. These perpetuities should not be confused with US consols which could be redeemed after 10, 15 or 30 years at the option of the Treasury Department after a specified date. (As it turned out, the British repurchased various consols in 2015.)
In some cases, bonds have been issued with maturity dates 100 years in the future. Bonds which mature in 100 years’ time are sometimes referred to as “century” bonds. In the past few years, countries such as Austria (September 2017), Ireland (March 2016) and Mexico (2010) have issued century bonds.
Readers may recall Argentina raised USD$2.75 billion in June 2017 with an issue of USD-denominated century bonds. The bonds have a 7.125% coupon and a 28 June 2117 maturity date and they were issued with a yield to maturity of 8.00% on account of Argentina’s “B” credit rating.
Argentina had returned to the international market in March 2016 after it had settled a range of bondholder disputes. These disputes effectively barred the country from accessing international bond markets in any meaningful way until they were resolved. Once the settlements were in place, Argentina’s government quickly moved to access international markets again.