Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend I.Khalilova / The Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance has concluded the preparatory work for issuing state bonds in foreign currency (euro-bonds) and their placement at international fiscal markets, Samir Sharifov, the Azerbaijani Finance Minister said on 27 September.
"To place Euro-bonds we intend to wait for a favorable sate of the fiscal spread," he said. The United States is first in the world fiscal markets, while crisis of super-risky mortgage is under development and it makes an unfavorable impact on the financial system of many developed countries. In this respect, the spread on sovereign debts of developing countries increased considerably.
In this respect, the Finance Ministry intends to attentively observe the situation in order to attract funds which the market underrates, which would be considered favorable for Azerbaijan. "Unfortunately, the current situation makes it impossible. As we do not pursue a fiscal goal and solve financial problems like some other countries, we can delay the process until the moment when the state of the fiscal market will become improved," the Minister stressed. Previously, the term of the first issue of Euro-bonds was scheduled for September-October 2007.
Sharifov said that Euro-bonds will be issued for five years, but did not reveal other terms. At the same time he did not exclude the probability of increasing the amount of issuance to $500mln compared to the previous $300mln.
Investment banks Deutsche Bank AG London, and Citigroup Global Markets Limited were appointed as the Government's managers in the implementation of the first issue of Euro-bonds.