September 11 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's state railways company BDZ plans to privately place within two months a 120 million euro ($165.9 million) 10-year bond issue, which it will use to repay debt and upgrade its rolling stock, the lead manager of the issue said on Tuesday.
The issue will have two-year grace period, state-owned Encouragement Bank said in a statement.
No details about the coupon of the issue were immediately available.
Encouragement Bank and Austrian Dexia Kommunalkredit Bank and Ireland-based Depfa Bank, which are co-managers of the issue, will aim to attract Bulgarian and foreign investors as subscribers, the statement said.
BDZ will invest 40 million levs ($28.2 million/20.4 million euro) of the funds raised through the bond issue to buy new railway cars and 20 million levs to repay debt, Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev said earlier. The company will also invest in the upgrade of its existing railway cars.
BDZ pared its half-year loss by 21 million levs to 1.7 million levs in the first half of this year.
($ = 0.7234 euro)