Romania's Finance Ministry has mandated several banks to prepare a USD – denominated bonds issuance. The banks, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup and HSBC, according to unnamed sources quoted by Mediafax newswire, will start organizing meetings with investors in Europe and the US prior to the issuance. The series of meetings between the Romanian Finance Ministry representatives and the investors will start on Monday, February 11.

Romania attracted around EUR 2.5 billion in January, plus an extra EUR 502 million in three-year bonds. January 2013's figures are remarkable when it is considered that last year, Romania raised EUR 2.25 billion and USD 2.24 billion from external markets.

The target for February this year is of EUR 820 million, less than half of what was attracted in January.

editor@romania-insider.com