Following successful bond sales in the Czech Republic and Switzerland, Slovakia is preparing another foreign bond issue targeted at US buyers, the SITA newswire reported.
"We are continuing with the planned bond floatation on US markets," said Finance Minister Peter Kažimír at the meeting of parliament’s finance committee last week after returning from a visit to potential investors in the United States, adding that some other foreign sales are expected.
"Within diversification of Slovakia's foreign debt we are planning, apart from the successful issues in the Czech Republic and Switzerland, to gradually place bonds also on other important [foreign] markets," said the minister's aide, Radko Kuruc, as quoted by SITA. In February this year Slovakia borrowed on a market outside the eurozone for the first time when the Finance Ministry's Debt and Liquidity Management Agency (ARDAL) sold securities for CZK 12.5 billion to Czech´ investors, about €500 million. This bond matures in September 2015 and its interest rate is tied to the six-month Prague InterBank Offered Rate (PRIBOR) plus a margin of 1.5 percent.
A bond issue on the Swiss market followed in mid-March when Slovakia sold bonds for CHF 425 million, about €350 million. ARDAL says that investors valued the Slovak bonds very well compared with bonds of other central and eastern European countries selling bonds in the secondary Swiss market, SITA wrote.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
