BRATISLAVA, March 7, (WEBNOVINY) — Slovakia borrowed EUR 207.5 million at the week’s start on financial markets, informed the Finance Ministry’s Debt and Liquidity Management Agency (ARDAL), which accepted this volume in Monday’s American auction of government bonds maturing in 2013. Total demand reached EUR 453.4 million, whereas foreign investors’ bids represented EUR 157 million. In the end, foreign investors bought bonds worth EUR 112 million.
ARDAL further reported that the average required price in the auction was 98.7862 percent, minimum 98.3000 percent and maximum 99.0727 percent. The average accepted bid represented 98.9036 percent, with a minimum price of 98.8500 percent and maximum accepted price of 99.0727 percent.
Slovakia could raise almost half of this year’s national debt refinancing requirement through issues of syndicated bonds. The overall need for debt refinancing this year is EUR 8.5 billion. According to the head of the Finance Ministry’s Debt and Liquidity Management Agency (ARDAL) Daniel Bytcanek, they could sell up to EUR 4 billion of government debt through syndicated bonds this year.
„Overall, we plan to sell through syndicated bonds of about EUR 4 billion and the rest through auctions in the domestic market which is open for foreign investors,“ he said for SITA news agency. He specified that in 2011, Slovakia could launch two or three syndicated issues in the spring and autumn. „The actual date of bond issues will depend in particular on the situation on financial markets,“ he said.
Last year, ARDAL raised EUR 7.094 billion in bond sales to cover the state debt and to provide liquidity. This represented a significant increase from the EUR 4.208 billion obtained in 2009. The increase was caused by a higher need to refinance the state budget deficit. Last year’s sale included also the EUR 3.5 billion from a syndicated sale of two issues of benchmark bonds from April and October of last year. The agency sold T-bills worth EUR 2.421 billion last year, too, up from EUR 1.259 billion a year ago.
SITA