Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13
By Emin Aliyev, Abbas Akhundov - Trend:
Azerbaijan's debut Eurobond placement is "benchmark" [ benchmark yield ] for investors, chairman of the Azerbaijani State Securities Committee Rufat Aslanli told the media on March 13.
"We consider this as quite satisfactory," he added. "It was quite advantageous for the country from a financial point of view and in terms of timing. I think that this event extends Azerbaijani companies' opportunities to draw high-quality and low-cost resources."
An issue of sovereign bonds is a long-awaited step by the Azerbaijani government, Azerbaijani Pasha Bank board member Taleh Kazimov said.
"Besides the government has drawn $ 1.25 billion, the main thing is that we have "benchmark"," he said. "Earlier, it was unreal to create the marginal profitability as there was no "benchmark". The Finance Ministry's issue of Eurobonds will allow us to put a starting point from which we will create our own domestic corporate market, as well as overseas."
While speaking about the rate, he stressed that this is a very attractive rate for the debut issue.
Azerbaijan placed its debut Eurobond issue totaling $ 1.25 billion with four billion demand on March 10. The bonds were issued for a period of 10 years with a yield of five percent per annum.
As a result of the placement, U.S. investors purchased 47 percent of sovereign Eurobonds of Azerbaijan, from Great Britain - 25 percent, Germany - 18 percent, and the remaining 10 percent were purchased by buyers from other countries, including Singapore and Israel.
Barclays, Deutsche Bank AG London and Citigroup Global Markets Limited investment banks were chosen as managers of the government implementing the first issue of Eurobonds.
Translated by NH
Edited by CN