CEC Bank, the bank with the longest history in the financial-banking market in Romania, which started to operate in 1864, is listing today, 17 February, the first two bonds issued and denominated in RON and EUR, totalling over 650 million RON, on the Main Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The bonds issued in RON, with a total value of 175.35 million RON, will be traded under the CECRO25 ticker symbol, whereas the bonds issued in EUR, with a total value of 97.3 million EUR, will be traded under the CECRO25E ticker symbol.
The bonds issued by CEC Bank are senior non-preferred unsecured bonds eligible in the light of the MREL requirements. The tranche in RON has a fixed interest rate (coupon) of 9% per year, and the tranche in EUR has a coupon rate of 7.5%, both having the maturity on 30 December 2025.
‘Today, CEC Bank has taken the first step on the Bucharest Stock Exchange by listing its first MREL-eligible bonds. This is an important step, in light of the fact that CEC Bank seeks to emerge as an attractive institution for investors in the capital markets as well as in terms of applying the corporate governance and transparence requirements applicable to the stock exchange. Today’s listing attests to our commitment to turn CEC Bank into a modern and competitive bank governed by professional principles’, declared Bogdan Neac?u, General Manager of the CEC Bank.
‘The Bucharest Stock Exchange remains a trusted partner for the Romanian banking system and we are pleased that CEC Bank lists for the first time two bonds in RON and in EUR. Within less than a month from the first listing of bonds this year, again by one of the banking institutions in Romania, we give a welcome to a new issuer from the financial-banking sector, which chose to rely on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in order to finance itself. This trend we saw in the previous year, which also takes shape in 2023, attests to the fact that banks do find the resources they need in the Romanian capital market’, declared Radu Hanga, President of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
‘The first step taken on the local stock exchange by the CEC Bank shows us that the capital market prevails as a solution for the development of the Romanian banking institutions’ projects. We are delighted that the CEC Bank, which is a benchmark institution in the financial-banking history of Romania, being closely linked to the development of our country, has joined us as a new issuer. The two bonds issued in RON and in EUR, totalling over 650 million RON, stand as proof of the bank’s trust in the resources offered by the Romanian capital market and in the instruments made available by the stock exchange. The debut of the CEC Bank team on the Regulated Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange is a notable moment for us as, from this day forward, we will be able to conjoin for the financing of the local economy’, declared Adrian Tanase, CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
Raiffeisen Bank S.A. was an intermediary for the two tranches issued in December. The issuer has received legal assistance from Dentons and Clifford Chance has provided legal assistance to the intermediary, both of which are law firms acting through the offices established in Bucharest and Frankfurt, whereas the audit was performed by KPMG Audit SRL.
‘We are renowned for our involvement in the development of the capital market and financial intermediation in Romania, as well as for our bond-related expertise acquired by our own relevant issuances and by the consultancy we have provided to the other stakeholders in the market. We have entered into a sound partnership with the CEC Bank with a view to gaining MREL eligible financing and we are confidently looking forward, in 2023, to the further stages that are to include wider issuances and to involve the participation of international investors’, declared Mihail Ion, Vice-President of Capital Markets, Investment Banking and Personal Financial Planning, a representative of the Raiffeisen Bank.
The two bonds issued and entered for trading today are the first bonds issued by CEC Bank on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The bonds will be used by CEC Bank for general corporate purposes as well as for liquidity and to ensure compliance with the MREL requirements.