Today Alfa-Bank (Ba1/BB) has successfully closed a US $500 million 5-year Eurobond transaction.This is the fifth and largest drawdown to date under the US $2 billion EMTN (Euro Medium Term Notes) Programme which Alfa-Bank established in June 2004. The Bank’s first Rule 144A EMTN issue, maturing on June 25, 2012, was priced at par at the tight end of the initial price guidance, at 8.20%. The bonds are listed on the London Stock Exchange. Credit Suisse and UBS acted as Lead Managers on the deal.
The transaction attracted strong institutional investor interest with 91 investors coming into the deal. More than half of them participated in Alfa-Bank’s EMTN transactions for the first time.
The issue met broad geographic distribution with 46% of the orders coming from the USA, 26% from the U.K., 8% from Switzerland, 7% from The Netherlands, 4% from Italy, 4% from Asia and 5% from the rest of the world. In terms of account type, investment funds accounted for roughly half of the book, with significant orders also coming in from banks and hedge funds.
“We are very proud of this transaction, which has a number of unique features for Alfa-Bank. Firstly, this is the longest tenor transaction issued under Alfa-Bank’s EMTN Programme. It is also the first Rule 144A offering made under the Programme, targeting institutional investors based in the United States. High demand from both US and European investors, despite current volatility on the markets, demonstrates that there is strong investor confidence in our bank“, says Andrew Baxter, Chief Financial Officer of Alfa-Bank.
The issue is rated “ÂB“ by S&P and “Âà1“ by Moody’s. The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.
