Slovakia Places €2 bn Worth of Government Bonds on International Stock Markets

Bratislava, October 30 (TASR) - Slovakia on Tuesday (October 29) returned to international stock markets for the third time this year, floating a new seven-year government-bond issue worth €2 billion, the Debt and Liquidity Management Agency (ARDAL) has informed TASR. An achieved yield on maturity amounting to 3.04 percent p.a. made it possible to set the coupon at the level of 3.00 percent p.a. with an issue price of 99.751 percent. ARDAL took advantage of the favourable [stock market] situation before the US presidential elections, macroeconomic events and the revision of Slovakia's rating. The lead managers of the transaction were Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG, Ceskoslovenska obchodna banka, a.s. (KBC Group), Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan SE. According to ARDAL, the Slovak bond issue attracted strong interest from the very beginning, with demand exceeding €5 billion. Final bids exceeded €7.5 billion. The issue was purchased by 125 investors, with 53 percent of them being banks, 29 percent asset-management companies, 14 percent central banks/official institutions, 3 percent insurance and pension funds and the remaining 1 percent hedge funds. In regional terms, Germany, Austria and Switzerland together accounted for 24 percent of the issue, Central and Eastern European countries 18 percent, southern-European countries 15 percent, the Benelux countries 14 percent, the United Kingdom and Ireland 11 percent, Scandinavia 7 percent, France 2 percent, other European investors 4 percent and other global investors the remaining 5 percent. ko/df