Lottery bond

Lottery bonds are a type of government bond in which some randomly selected bonds within the issue are redeemed at a higher value than the face value of the bond. Lottery bonds have been issued by public authorities in Belgium, France, Ireland, Pakistan, Sweden, New Zealand, the UK and other nations.

Outwardly, lottery bonds resemble ordinary fixed rate bonds; they have a fixed, though usually long, duration and either pay no interest or regular coupons. The individual bonds within each issue are numbered, like ordinary bonds, but the serial numbers serve a different function from ordinary bonds. For a lottery bond the serial number is an added incentive for the purchaser to buy the bond.

Although the details vary by bond and by issuer, the principle remains the same. A drawing takes place according to a schedule to decide which serial numbers are to be redeemed. The individual bonds within the issue thus identified by the drawing are then bought back by the issuer, so that the total value of an issue will decrease as time passes and more bonds are redeemed. A small number of bonds are redeemed for an amount greater than their face value. Hence the holder of that particular bond will have won the ‘lottery’. Lottery bonds are similar to prize-linked savings accounts.

If the government of Belgium issues a 10-year lottery bond to finance re-gilding the Atomium, the issue may consist of 10,000 individual bonds with a face value of EUR 1,000. The coupon rate is reasonable to attract investors, but not high. However, the issuer has committed to redeem 5,000 of the 10,000 bonds issued before the bond’s maturity date and has further committed to redeem 120 of these at a redemption value of EUR 1,250.

This means that any purchaser of a single bond for EUR 1,000 will receive annual interest a little above the bank rate, but will also have a 1.2% chance of winning an additional 25% of their original investment.

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Wikipedia