An amount of 400 million euros has been raised Alfa Bank through the Additional issue of bonds of the 1st level with a coupon rate of 11.875%. The issue attracted strong interest from the investment community and, according to the bank, is “an important milestone that confirms the bank’s robust access to the capital markets, rapid response, as well as the determination of the bank’s management to seize the benefits.” favorable market conditions. The issue creates the conditions for optimizing Alfa-Bank’s capital structure in line with the standards of leading European banks.”

In particular, capitalizing on positive market dynamics and Fitch’s recent upgrade to B+, demand for the bonds has significantly exceeded, by a factor of 5.7, the initial target of €300m, with offers approaching €1.80bn from more than 190 investors. Following the high investment interest, the bank decided to increase the issue, eventually collecting 400 million euros. The deal attracted exclusively international investment interest, with coverage mainly from the UK (40%), the EU and other countries. and Switzerland (35%). Long-term investors led the distribution, with fund managers and insurance companies accounting for more than 95% of the distribution.

Offers from more than 190 investors approached 1.8 billion euros.

The new perpetual bonds, callable after 5.5 years, will be placed for trading on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The yield was 11.875%, which is lower than the initial market estimates. Alpha Bank Group CFO Lazaros Papagarifallou expressed his satisfaction with the high leverage achieved from the first additional Level 1 transaction. sources of capital. Strong demand from a well-diversified international investor base has led to this successful outcome. The success of this issue is a clear vote of confidence in the future prospects of both Alfa-Bank and the Greek economy as a whole,” said Mr. Papagarifallou.

The AT1 bond issuance is part of its plan to raise capital to boost profitability by increasing credit expansion. At the same time, it optimizes and strengthens Alfa-Bank’s diversified capital structure profile, increasing the bank’s total and regulatory capital (total capital and MRELs) by approximately 120 basis points. It should be noted that the Tier 1 capital index of total capital with full implementation of Basel III (FL CET1) rose to 12.1% based on the latest available data for 9M 2022. BofA, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Nomura and Barclays acted jointly as joint bookrunners, with Citigroup acting as sole structuring advisor. The issuer’s legal advisors were the law firms Koutalides and Allen & Overy LLP.

Over the past three years, the bank’s total presence through bond issuance is 2.8 billion euros, and the new issue confirms its strong momentum in capital market access and the diversified financing profile it achieves. For Tier 2 bonds, the bank fully covered its €1bn issuance margin through issuances completed in 2019 and 2020. From 2019 to present, it is the most active issuing bank in the international capital markets for all categories of securities (shares, preferably senior, level 2 and now AT1).