BRATISLAVA, May 7, (WEBNOVINY) — Following successful bond issues in the Czech Republic and Switzerland, Slovakia is preparing another foreign bond issue. This time Slovak bonds should be sold overseas. “We are continuing with the planned bond floatation on US markets,” said Finance Minister Peter Kazimir at the Parliamentary Finance Committee last week. He just returned from a roadshow for investors in the United States.
Some other foreign issues can also be expected. “Within diversification of Slovakia’s foreign debt we are planning, apart from the successful issue in the Czech Republic and Switzerland, to gradually place bonds also on other important [foreign] markets,” said minister’s aide Radko Kuruc.
For the first time this year Slovakia borrowed on a market outside the eurozone in the second half of February when the Finance Ministry’s Debt and Liquidity Management Agency ARDAL) sold securities for CZK 12.5 billion to Czech investors, which is some EUR 500 million. This bond matures in September 2015 and its interest rate is tied to six-month PRIBOR (Prague InterBank Offered Rate) plus a margin of 1.5 percent p.a.
Then a bond issue on the Swiss market followed in mid-March when Slovakia floated bonds for CHF 425 million accounting for over EUR 350 million. ARDAL says that investors valued the bond very well compared with bonds of cental and eastern European countries present on the secondary Swiss market.
SITA