Czech Republic’s €1.5bn 4.625% bond due June 2014
Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley were lead managers
The Czech Republic’s €1.5bn 10-year bond was not just a successful sovereign deal, it was also the country’s first ever international issuance – the last of the EU’s newest members to debut in the international debt markets.
Indeed, benefiting from the country’s new EU status and the absence of Czech paper in the market, the deal achieved the tightest pricing on any central European sovereign bond to date, coming in at 12bp over mid-swaps. That put it just 3bp wider than Greece and 5bp outside Italy.
The timing of the deal was also impeccable, with spreads on the Czech Republic’s EU accession country peer group having narrowed. A thorough marketing effort permitted the issue to be enlarged by 50%; the final order book closed at just under €3bn.
