BRATISLAVA, February 16, (WEBNOVINY) — Slovakia may open books on a planned tap of a syndicated issue of 2016 bonds as early as Thursday, a source connected with the issue said on Wednesday. Thomson Reuters market research group IFR reported that managers of the issue are sounding out investors at a price of 85 basis points over mid-swaps.
The syndicate is to extend the issue of initially 6-year bonds maturing in February 2016. Slovakia’s debt agency ARDAL has mandated CSOB, Slovak unit of KBC; Slovenska sporitelna, a unit of Erste; and VUB, unit of Intesa SanPaolo.
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 ARDAL head 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,“ Bytcanek said in January of this year.
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