Financial market

The government has adopted a strategy for the development of capital markets that the Finance Ministry hopes will make Slovenia a country where organised financial markets are recognised as an investment opportunity.

The Spanish bank that owns a 49.85 percent share in Garanti BBVA launched a voluntary takeover bid yesterday for the rest of the stakes in the Turkish lender at a price of 12.20 Turkish Liras ($1.22) per share.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) deals concluded in the first half of 2021 amount to an estimated 1.8 billion euros for over 80 transactions announced, shows a survey by PwC Romania which confirmed the market's upward trend resumed since the second half of 2020.

Greece is making its first market foray for 2021, probably on Wednesday, with the issue of a new 10-year bond to further strengthen its cash reserves. The market had more or less expected a 10-year note, despite some investment companies foreseeing longer issues.

The local capital market has evolved nicely both in terms of liquidity and of the value of the listed companies, president of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) Radu Hanga told a news conference today dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the listing of Fondul Proprietatea (FP).

Liquidity, measured in terms of the average daily trading value, increased by over 42% at the cumulative level of all types of financial instruments and exceeded RON 62 million (EUR 12.86 million) for the first 11 months of the year, according to a report of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) released on Wednesday.

We have gone out on the international markets and the interest in Romania has been almost 14 billion euros, of which we have chosen to borrow 3.3 billion euros, the Public Finance Minister Florin Citu said after the government meeting on Wednesday. He specified that the loan offered the possibility of financing expenditure from the budget without any problems.

The first pillar of Romania's economic reconstruction that the Government is thinking of is public investment in transport, energy infrastructure, health, education, communications and agriculture, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Tuesday. "We are working on a plan of economic and social measures. The plan will include several categories of measures.

The Turkish Wealth Fund (TWF) announced late on May 11 that it will raise the core capital of three state lenders.

"To strengthen capital structures and support the adequacy of Ziraat Bank, Halkbank and VakıfBank, we have launched the necessary works to raise core capitals by a total of 21 billion Turkish liras [some $3 billion]," the TWF said in a statement.

A significant portion of the required financing for the relaunch of the real economy could, and actually should, come from capital markets. The Covid-19 pandemic may prove to be a reason to accelerate taking better advantage of existing capital markets instruments as well as designing new ones.