International investment powerhouses and real-money investors, including US players, were key participants in power utility PPC’s bond issue this week, oversubscribed by six times with orders totaling three billion euros, a vote of confidence for the course being pursued by the company.
PPC promoted the issue by highlighting its comeback over the past year and a half.
Foreign investors – including institutional investors, private banks and hedge funds – comprised 70 percent of the issue’s subscribers, providing approximately 450 million euros of 650 million euros in total, according to estimates by sources.
The issue’s two coordinators, HSBC and Goldman Sachs, were still working on a finalized list of subscribers late last night.
Importantly, half the investment amount provided by foreign investors concerned real-money investors, including top global players handling portfolios worth trillions of dollars.
PPC’s issue, a sustainability-linked bond through which the utility has pledged, to investors, carbon emission reductions, was too good an offer to ignore. Its yield, 3.875 percent, was a standout prospect given far lower yields offered in the eurozone.
The results, since the order book’s opening on Monday, have exceeded PPC’s expectations in what is being hailed as an unprecedented success for a Greek bond issue, both in terms of the level of capital amounts offered and number of participants.
Also, this issue means PPC has succeeded in borrowing at an interest rate that is one-and-a-half percent below its current borrowing cost.
Banking sector officials pointed out the issue’s outcome highlights a wider change in perception of Greece by investors.