By EBRD Press Office

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD, Aaa/AAA/AAA) successfully launched a US$1.5 billion Global bond issue, the Issuer’s third USD benchmark since the beginning of the year, and follows on from their US$1.5bn 3-year in June.

Encouraged by a positive global market backdrop following positive COVID-19 vaccine news and strong momentum in the primary markets, EBRD accessed the market swiftly to price the tightest 5-year SSA USD transaction versus mid-swap in 18 months.

The mandate for a new US$1bn 5-year transaction was announced on Tuesday 17th November at 2pm UKT with Initial Pricing Thoughts of MS+8bps area. Indications of Interest built steadily throughout the US day and into the Asian session, reaching over US$1bn by the time books formally opened at 8.25am UKT.

Interest from investors continued to grow throughout London morning surpassing US$1.75bn by 10:15am UKT, enabling the spread to be set at MS+7bps, one basis point tighter than Initial Pricing Thoughts. The deal was upsized to US$1.5bn on the back of high quality interest, with final orders in excess of US$1.9bn (including US$50mn of Joint Lead Manager interest).

The transaction attracted impressive demand from global Central Banks / Official Institutions who took 61 per cent of allocation. Geographically the distribution was diverse across Asia (50%), Americas (34%) and EMEA (16%). In total over 75 investors participated in the transaction.

This transaction was joint-lead managed by Citi, Daiwa, J.P. Morgan and Scotiabank.

The bond was issued at a reoffer price of 99.867 a per cent and pays a coupon of 0.5 per cent semi-annually. This gives a re-offer yield of 0.527 per cent, equivalent to a spread of +13.45 bps above the current 5-year US Treasury.