The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) placed RON300mn (€60mn) as part of the RON1bn issue launched by Romania’s second-biggest lender, Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), part of Erste Bank Group, Ziarul Financiar daily reported quoting bank officials.
The issue, launched under a private placement procedure and registered with the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) on May 19, will be listed on the exchange towards the end of May.
It matures in 2028 and carries a 3.9% coupon, meaning that it most likely was issued at a premium.
The issue was operated not for liquidity purposes, but for regulatory purposes, BCR’s head of investment banking Ioana Tanase explained.
“We need to show that we can be independent of shareholders in terms of funding sources,” she said.
BCR raised RON1bn from institutional investors, such as pension funds, EBRD and IFC, even if on the liquidity side the stock of deposits exceeds by €4bn that of loans.
"We have a mix of shareholder support and independence in that we have the ability to attract independent sources from the market. It will always be a combination of the two. BCR issued another RON600mn bond in December 2019, listed at BVB as well, which will not be repaid in advance,” said Tanase to Ziarul Financiar.
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