The second Croatian issuer has joined the MTN market with a euro500 million ($424.39 million) global MTN shelf. Pliva, a pharmaceutical company, signed on September 15 via UBS Warburg. The signing comes hot on the heels of Croatian Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which put pen to paper last month. Pliva will be one of only two Central and Eastern European corporates in the market, joining Lietuvos Energija which launched its inaugural deal in June. Pliva is the leading drug company in terms of sales in Central and Eastern Europe. It has a reputation for being aggressively acquisitive. The unrated issuer has an active $100 million Euro-CP facility which it signed in December 1998. The dealer group is made up of Bank Austria, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, Westdeutsche Landesbank and the arranger.
September 22, 2000