French electricity giant EDF said on Wednesday that it had raised 2.0 billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) through an oversubscribed bond issue to help fund the group which is in the process of buying British nuclear power generators.

Despite the international crisis on credit markets, EDF said that offers totalling 5.5 billion euros had been made to buy the bonds worth a total of 2.0 billion euros in the biggest corporate bond issue in euros by a European issuer in one go so far this year.

The corporate bond market in general has been moribund since the beginning of September owing to the credit crisis.

The bonds have a life of four years and two months and carry a coupon of 5.625 percent, meaning that the guaranteed annual income relative to the price for which the bond was issued equates to this percentage yield.

EDF, the biggest producer of nuclear electricity in the world, said that in `these difficult market conditions` it had placed the issue with `French and European institutional investors.`

EDF recently made a successul offer of 12.4 billion pounds to buy British Energy.