Bond

In a landmark ruling Slovenia's top court has abrogated a law that required the Slovenian central bank to compensate those who lost their investments during the banking sector bailout of 2013, when roughly tens of thousands of holders of shares and junior bonds were completely wiped out.

Greece is close to regaining its investment-grade credit rating in 2023, after 12 years of relegation to junk status, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

"We think that 2023 is the year will get the investment grade," Greek central bank chief Yannis Stournaras said in an interview with the paper, urging the country's next government to maintain fiscal prudence.

Alpha Bank raised 400 million euros on Wednesday through the issue of an Additional Tier 1 bond with a coupon of 11.875%, a rate lower than initial market estimates.

BELGRADE - Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said on Friday Serbia had raised 1.75 bln dollars in a London Stock Exchange bond issue and that the funds would be invested in infrastructure.

Greece is likely to make its 2023 market debut on Tuesday with a syndicated issue of a new 10-year bond, in the context of the front-heavy strategy by the Public Debt Management Agency, in view of the further interest rate increases expected by the European Central Bank, but also general elections, which may cause market volatility and instability.

Analysts are split on when Greece may return to investment grade, in what is seen as a difficult year for the eurozone bond market due to the ECB's aggressive stance, while the national elections are firmly on investors' radars.

What is the Bank of Greece's biggest concern? That reaching investment grade has drifted further away and that in an international environment full of uncertainties, there is only one certainty: That the time of abundant, cheap money has given way to an era of high interest rates and limited liquidity.

Slovenia has issued a €1.25 billion sustainability bond to become the first country in the region to tap the bond market amidst rising interest rates.

The issue has a coupon rate of 3.625%, which compares to just 0.125% for the country's first sustainability bond, which was issued in June 2021.

LAMDA DEVELOPMENT S.A. announced that its 100% subsidiary, LAMDA ENERGY INVESTMENTS S.M.S.A., signed a share transfer agreement regarding the purchase of 20% of the share capital of R Energy 1 Holding for a cash consideration of €5m.

Ljubljana – Slovenia’s treasury has increased the issuance of three bonds with a total value of just under EUR 405.5 million, according to a posting on the website of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. This is the first long-term borrowing under the new government of Robert Golob, which puts Slovenia’s total long-term borrowing this year at EUR 3.27 billion.