February 25 (SeeNews) - Croatia plans to shortly issue bonds on the domestic and on the international markets to refinance maturing debt, finance minister Zdravko Maric said.
The country will first sell debt on the domestic market to refinance two domestic bonds - one worth 1.0 billion euro ($1.1 billion) and the other удишг 5.0 billion kuna ($727 million/670 million euro), that mature on March 5, Maric said in a statement on the government's website on Monday.
"So, it is about a total value of some 12.5 billion kuna that we are going to refinance on the domestic market. The activities have been already in an advanced stage and in the next several days we will announce the agreed terms and other details of these transactions," Maric said.
Right after, the ministry will prepare an international bond issue to refinance a $1.25 billion bond that matures on July 14, he added.
Croatia last sold long-term debt in November, placing two bond issues of combined 11 billion kuna on the domestic market. One issue was worth 3.5 billion kuna and maturing in 2024, and the other totalled 7.5 billion kuna and maturing in 2034.
The 3.5 billion kuna bond was sold with a 0.25% interest rate, yielding 0.36%, while the 7.5 billion kuna bond (which is indexed to the euro) has a 1.00% interest rate, yielding 1.20%.
Back then, interested investors placed bids worth more than 23 billion kuna for the two new issues, with over 10 billion kuna offered for the five-year securities and more than 13 billion kuna for the 15-year bond.
(1 euro = 7.46274 kuna)