YEREVAN, September 18. / ARKA /. Armenia has just wrapped up its road show drumming up interest for its debut dollar-denominated bonds, which is expected to hit the market later this year, a posting on The Wall Street Journal blog says.
Dollar bonds issued outside the US often have nicknames. Kangaroo Bonds from Australia. Samurai Bonds from Japan. And Armenia, among many things, is famous for its apricots, which are thought to have originated there, and, Los Angeles’s finest, the Kardashians.
Apricot Bonds has a nice ring to it. But alas, it’s unlikely to catch on. Tim Ash, an emerging markets analyst at Standard Bank, has already coined Kardashian Bonds in notes to clients.
The first issue of the bonds is expected to be worth $500 million with a ten-year maturity period. The Armenian government chose Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Bank plc and JPMorgan Securities plc as the underwriters. In a related development the Fitch Ratings has assigned the Republic of Armenia’s potential upcoming USD-denominated notes an expected ‘BB-(EXP)’ rating. The expected rating is in line with Armenia’s Long-Term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of ‘BB-‘. The Outlook on the rating is Stable. -0-
