Financiarul

„The issue was about five times oversubscribed and was placed at mid-swap rate plus 268 basis points. The lead-managers of the issue were Deutsche Bank, EFG Eurobank and HSBC,’ reads a MFP release.
There was a solid demand for Romania’s bonds maturing in March 2015, which were priced to yield 268 basis points above the benchmark mid-swap rate, the country’s first such placement on capital markets since the onset of the financial crisis, Reuters reports.

Bids totaled EUR 4.9 billion, which is proof of the investors’ interest in Central European issuers, given that the debt of these countries is much lower compared with that of troubled states in the euro area.
‘This was a EUR 1 bln bond issue with a coupon of 5 percent and a yield of 5.17 percent per year,” said Secretary of State with the Ministry of Public Finance Bogdan Dragoi. „The final bids amounted to 4.9 billion euros,” the official also remarked.

Romania has a ‘Baa3′ rating with stable outlook assigned by Moody’s Investors Service and a ‘BB plus’ rating (below investment grade) assigned by both Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s. In the recent weeks however, the two rating agencies improved their outlook for Romania in response to the resumption of the loan agreement with the IMF and the EU, after the Bucharest authorities adopted an austerity budget for 2010.

Traders too say that Romania’s eurobond issue brokered by Deutsche Bank AG, EFG Eurobank and HSBC Holdings Plc. was a success. „There was a high amount of bids, therefore the operation aroused interest. Overall, it was a success. Moreover, given that markets are flooded with liquidity, the yield was favorable as well,” said one of the traders.

In 2008, Romania placed an eurobond issue for a yield of 6.698 percent and in 2009 Hungary placed EUR 1 billion in bonds for a spread of 395 basis points over the market’s benchmark rate.