ABN Amro has persuaded the second Dutch utility in three weeks to join the Euro-CP market. UNA, the third largest electricity company in the Netherlands, will sign a euro250 million ($209.98 million) Euro-CP programme next week. ABN Amro is rewarded with the arrangership and is the only dealer. This is the second Euro-CP arrangership for ABN Amro this year, after Nuon, also an electricity company, signed its euro500 million programme last month via the bank (see MTNWeek, issue 197). But UNA's programme is not expected to issue much more than euro100 million. Joop van Ewijk, treasurer at Reliant Energy Europe, whose parent, Reliant Energy, bought UNA last year, says: "We need this programme just to make up differences in our short-term balance sheet, and not for specific funding." UNA's major funding requirements are met by a revolving credit facility, and until this summer it also had a Euro-MTN programme in use. But it was cancelled when the borrower no longer needed long-term funding. Both Nuon's and UNA's programmes are unrated. UNA itself is rated A3 by Moody's and BBB+ by Standard & Poor's, but van Ewijk does not feel the actual facility warrants the expense of a rating or a roadshow. He says: "We have been buying back most of our debt and this programme is supplementary to our proper funding needs. Our experience with the MTN market gives us confidence that we can manage this programme without ratings or a big marketing exercise." Nuon is involved in the distribution of electricity and UNA is involved in its production.
October 20, 2000
