The inaugural bond issue of Romanian state-controlled natural gas company Romgaz (BVB: SNG) of EUR 500 million is scheduled for September this year, announced Răzvan Popescu, the CEO of the state company.

"Now we have to determine exactly what the maturity of these bonds will be," he said, quoted by Ziarul Financiar.

The bonds will be issued in Luxembourg for the company to gain access to a larger pool of investors.

"Due to the size and the fact that we want Romgaz to access the international debt markets, the total size being EUR 1.5 billion, the initial listing will be on the Luxembourg market. They may be 'passported' to the Bucharest market," the Romgaz representative explained.

It is the first of several issues planned to reach EUR 1.5 billion over three years, mainly for the development of the Neptun Deep project in the Black Sea. The first issue will also allow the company to finance the development of Caragele deposits, a photovoltaic park, as well as other future decarbonization plans.

Initially, the first term of the inaugural issue was July, but Răzvan Popescu explained that the natural gas producer and supplier wants to get over the summer holidays first and announce the financial results for the first half of the year on August 14.

For the first issue, the company is working with JPMorgan, BT Capital Partners, Citi, Erste, Raiffeisen, and UniCredit.

"The currency may be euro or local currency, but the probability of it being in euros is higher due to the lower interest rates in euros. The term must be shorter than the maximum accepted. We're looking at five to seven years here at the moment. It also depends a lot on the benchmark on the market conditions in September."

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Adel Al-Haddad)