Cyprus recently announced its intention to tap two existing bonds maturing in 2024 and 2040 for a minimum amount of €500 million in a bid to replace more expensive debt (expiring by end-2020) with cheaper debt.
A recent market announcement said: “The REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS, rated BBB- (stable) by Standard and Poor`s, Ba2 (positive) by Moody`s, BBB- (stable) by Fitch and BBBL (stable) by DBRS, has mandated Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs International Bank and HSBC for a dual-tranche re-opening of the Republic’s existing RegS, CACs benchmarks (registered form) maturing on 3rd December 2024 and 21st January 2040, with a minimum size of EUR250mn for each tranche. Listing: London Stock Exchange (Regulated Market). Denoms 1k+1k. English Law.”
According to the announcement, the transaction is expected to be launched in the near future subject to market conditions. FCA/ICMA stabilisation applies.
This will be the second time the Ministry of Finance and its advisors have opted to re-open existing bonds hoping to yield around €750 mln. Almost a year ago, in September 2019, the Ministry of Finance reopened existing bonds maturing in 2034 and 2049 securing €100 million and €250 million respectively.
