It isn’t often that Bulgaria jostles its way through the pack to win awards like these. Nonetheless the prize is merited. The past year has at times been a tricky one, as developed-world investors, unnerved at the prospect of rising US interest rates, also took fright at the raft of issues — slowing growth, outright recession, volatile currencies, soaring levels of corporate indebtedness — roiling emerging markets.
Yet more than a few sovereign issuers across emerging Europe and beyond proved equal to the challenge. Last July, Kazakhstan issued a $4bn dual-tranche bond split between a $2.5bn 10 year tranche and a $1.5bn 30 year portion. In January 2016, Poland and Slovakia both tapped into the euro market, with mixed success. The former struggled through the pricing process in a €1.75bn dual-tranche sale, while the latter, used to selling paper to willing investors in the January window, completed a €1bn 15 year deal that was only 1.2 times subscribed.
In April, Poland shrugged off a downgrade from Standard & Poor’s, returning to the US dollar market for the first time in more than two years. The sovereign benefited from the Fed’s continued dovish stance on interest rates, increasing a $1.5bn 10 year issuance to $1.75bn thanks to robust investor interest.
But it is Bulgaria that has really caught the eye over the past few quarters and stolen the show. In March 2015, the country sold what was then the biggest euro denominated issuance ever priced by an emerging markets sovereign issuer. The country raised €3.1bn via a three-tranche sale, split into €1.25bn in seven year paper, a €1bn, 12 year issuance and €850m worth of 20 year paper.
Twelve months later, Bulgaria was at it again, benefiting from benevolent market conditions in the second week of March to print just shy of €2bn worth of euro denominated bonds, comprising €1.14bn in seven year notes and €850m in 12 year securities.