site.btaBulgaria Pays USD 1.1 Bln-Plus on Global Bond Issue

Bulgaria Pays USD 1.1 Bln-Plus
on Global
Bond Issue

Sofia, January 15 (BTA) - The Finance Ministry has ordered the
payment of 1,131,162,978.75 US dollars to the holders of global
bonds of the Republic of Bulgaria maturing on January 15, 2015,
the Ministry's press office said Thursday.

The sum comprises 1,086,351,000 dollars in principal repayment
and the last payable interest coupon of 44,811,978.75 dollars.
The payment was made at 1.661 leva to the dollar, the central
bank's exchange rate for January 14.

The global bonds were issued in two tranches: one worth
511,498,000 dollars on April 10, 2002, at 2.23192 leva to the
dollar (the central bank's exchange rate for April 9), and
another worth 759,053,000 dollars on October 9, 2002, at 1.99574
leva to the dollar (the exchange rate for October 8).

The principal of slightly over 1.086 billion dollars was
outstanding after a buyback in November and December 2008.

The funds for the repayment of the maturing issue have been
raised through a successful placement on the international
financial markets of a 10-year euro bond with a 2.95 per cent
coupon, which is 5.30 percentage points lower than the coupon of
the bond issue maturing on January 15, 2015. As a result, the
Exchequer saves about 95.6 million leva in interest expenses per
year, and the negative impact of the US dollar currency risk is
minimized.

After the payment, Bulgaria's government debt is reduced by
about 919.6 euro from almost 11.4 billion euro to 10.5 billion
euro. Thus the debt to GDP ratio is reduced by more than 2
percentage points, from 27.0 per cent to 24.8 per cent, and the
relative share of the government debt in US dollars drops to 0.5
per cent of the total debt. PK/DD

//