January 18 (SeeNews) – Romania’s Cluj county council said on Thursday that it has listed a 75.7 million euro ($82.5 million) bond issue [BSE:CJC33E] on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, following a private placement carried out in December.
The bond issue consisted of 756,800 non-convertible, guaranteed, euro-denominated bonds with a nominal value of 100 euro, carrying a variable interest equal to the six-month EURIBOR plus 3.25% per year and maturing in 2033 with an early redemption option in 2029, Cluj county council said in a press release.
The funds are aimed at refinancing the local public debt and co-financing local public investment objectives of the Cluj county council. Projects include the modernisation of country roads part of the Northern Transylvania regional route, the construction of a headquarters for the School Centre for Inclusive Education, the modernisation of the Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children and other hospitals in Cluj-Napoca, and the restoration of the Banffy Castle historical monument.
Fitch Ratings assigned Cluj county foreign and local currency issuer default ratings (IDR) of ‘BBB-‘ with a stable outlook and a standalone credit profile (SCP) of ‘A”, it said in a press release in October.
“The satisfaction is all the greater as the rating of Cluj county, certified by international specialists, is the maximum level A, higher than the sovereign rating of Romania,” Alin Tise, president of the Cluj county council, said.
To achieve its investment objectives, Cluj county council has focused on attracting non-reimbursable financing, securing approximately 1 billion euro in European funding since 2007.
($=0.9179 euro)
