January 5 (SeeNews) - Slovenia said it has successfully placed a new 1.5 billion euro ($1.8 billion) 10-year bond issue, due March 6, 2028.
It is the first successful bond offering out of Central Eastern Europe in 2018, the finance ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.
The mandate was announced to the market late on Wednesday with the aim to execute the transaction intraday on Thursday. Citi, Commerzbank, Goldman Sachs International Bank, HSBC, Jefferies and NLB were selected as lead managers.
"On the back of positive feedback received after the announcement, Initial Pricing Thoughts of “MS+ 20bps area” were released at 09:05 CET on Thursday morning. Momentum was strong from the outset with Indications of Interest exceeding EUR 2.8bn (excluding JLM interest) by 10:50 CET, less than two hours after books opened," the finance ministry said.
Leveraging on the momentum, Slovenia then revised pricing and released Price Guidance of “MS+17bps area”.
"Books went officially subject at 12:15 CET with the final spread set at “MS+13bps”, reflecting a further price tightening on the back of an orderbook in excess of EUR3.4bn (excluding JLM interest). The orderbook held together well, and the transaction was launched at “MS+13bps area” at 13:50CET, setting the issuance size at EUR1.5bn," the ministry added.
The transaction priced later in the afternoon at 16:10 CET with an annual coupon level of 1.000% and at a re-offer price of 99.654%.
A total of 155 accounts from a granular array of institutional investors and diversified geographies participated, the finance ministry said. Most of them, or 35%, came from Germany and Austria, followed by the UK and Ireland with 17%.
($=0.829494 euro)