11.12.2023
Banca Comercială Română (BCR) launches a RON 1 billion senior non-preferred bonds issuance
Banca Comercială Română (BCR) successfully launches a new issue of non-preferred bonds, worth RON 1 billion. The issue consists of senior non-preferred bonds with a maturity of 6 years and will be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The issue received a long-term rating of BBB+ from Fitch and Baa2 from Moody's.
The book building process showed a strong investors interest, hence in the first hours after opening, the orderbook reached over RON 500 million, rising to over RON 1.2 billion in a very short time. Thus, the yield of 100 bps above the government securities translated into a coupon of 7.55%, reflecting BCR’s strong performance.
The issuance was addressed to large institutional investors, and the substantially larger size of the announced amount shows BCR's key role in the development of the local capital market.
"With the launch of this new bond issuance worth RON 1 billion, BCR reaffirms its commitment to the sustainable development of the local capital market, which has a direct impact on increasing prosperity and the Romanian economy. Every such success honors and guides us in scaling responsible investment opportunities with real impact in society. Together with my colleagues at BCR, we thank our investors and partners at the Bucharest Stock Exchange for our joint collaboration in creating long-term value in Romania, for Romania," said Sergiu Manea, CEO of Banca Comercială Română.
In the last three years, BCR has issued bonds worth approximately RON 8 billion, being one of the main active issuers on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The cumulative value of the 10 bond issuances listed by BCR on the BSE is RON 8.6 billion.
BCR’s new bond issue proved successful from the outset, as the order book registered was filled in the first three hours after its opening with the minimum issue size of RON 500 million. After another few hours, the order book was significantly oversubscribed, leading to the decision to close the offer early and increasing the value of the issue to RON 1 billion.
With this issuance, BCR took another step forward towards the compliance with the EU regulations on the minimum capacity that banks must have in order to absorb the losses, the Minimum Requirements of own funds and Eligible Liabilities (MREL) and MREL guidelines in line with targeted resolution strategy.