Banca Comercială Română (BCR) successfully launches the first senior non-preferred bonds in Romania and CEE region on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The RON 600 million bond issuance has a 7-year maturity and represents the largest RON bond issuance on the local capital market. The bond issuance has been assigned by Fitch a final rating of BBB+ .
The book building process has shown a strong interest from investors, as the deal was successfully priced at a coupon of 5.35%. The distribution was balanced between asset managers, pension funds, insurance companies and enjoyed the notable participation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
“The bond issue reflects our confidence in the local market and our commitment to further strengthen out fortress balance sheet. The diversification of our financing sources has long been in our development strategy. Moreover, we strongly believe that our early action will also contribute to further developing the capital market in Romania”, stated Sergiu Manea, CEO Banca Comercială Română.
“We are glad that the supply of financial instruments on the Bucharest Stock Exchange becomes increasingly diverse. BCR bonds proved to be a successful offering, both in terms of amount, as it is one of the largest issue on the Romanian capital market, and in terms of the time needed to complete the deal, which was short. It can serve as a good example to other projects in the domain of debt instruments, as it proves the capital market is fulfilling an important role to ensure the resources needed to develop the national economy”, stated Adrian Tănase, BVB CEO.
The bond issuance has shown its early success when the order book has gone well beyond the targeted RON 500 million, leading to the decision to increase the issued amount to RON 600 million. The final pricing also reflects our commitment to the market in terms of future issuance plans and our firm intention of building a relationship of trust with our investors.
With this issuance, BCR took a big step forward towards the compliance with the new EU regulations on the minimum capacity that banks must have in order to absorb the losses, the Minimum Requirements of own funds and Eligible Liabilities (MREL) and MREL guidelines in line with targeted resolution strategy.