HB sets €100 mln Notes issue price, oversubscribed x3.7

Hellenic Bank announced that it has priced an issue of €100 mln Senior Preferred Notes under the bank’s €1.5 bln Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme, at par with a fixed annual coupon of 4%, payable annually in arrear, with the chief executive calling it a “success”.

Τhe fixed coupon will reset on 17 September 2025 and the maturity date of the Notes will be 17 September 2026, and the Notes will, subject to satisfaction of certain conditions and compliance with applicable prudential rules, be callable by the bank at par on 17 September 2025 (2NC1).

Settlement will take place on 17 September 2024 and the Notes will be listed on the Luxemburg Stock Exchange’s Euro MTF market. J.P. Morgan acted as Sole Lead Manager on the transaction.

The Notes are expected to be rated ‘Ba2’ by Moody’s Ratings and at ‘BBB-’ by Fitch Ratings.

“We are pleased with the success of this transaction, which is a clear testament of the market confidence in the bank’s creditworthiness, reflected by the significant investor interest and the competitive pricing,” said Interim Chief Executive Officer, Antonis Rouvas.

“The transaction follows the recent rating upgrades of the bank, which were the result of a number of significant milestones and further improvement of its business model and financial performance,” he added in a statement.

Rouvas concluded that the substantial tightening of the credit spread compared to the bank’s inaugural Senior Preferred issue in July 2022 demonstrates the bank’s strengthened credit profile.

The issue attracted substantial interest from investors with the total orderbook exceeding €370 mln, 3.7 times oversubscribed, while the strong investor demand allowed the tightening of the Notes’ initial price indication of 4.5% by 50 basis points.

The Notes are expected to be fully eligible for the bank’s minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) up to 17 September 2025, the call date, and are in line with the bank’s funding strategy.