RTRS:Serbia plans 5-yr dollar bond, guidance at 5.625% area
LONDON, Nov 14 (IFR) - The Republic of Serbia, rated BB-/BB-, has released guidance in the 5.625% area for a five-year dollar-denominated bond of benchmark size which is expected to be today's business, a lead manager involved in the trade said.
The new deal comes only a month after the sovereign tapped its 7.25% 2021 note for a further USD1bn through Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, taking the bond's outstanding size to USD2bn.
Deutsche Bank, HSBC and VTB Capital are lead managers on the new bond.
On Tuesday, the Serbian government resumed talks with International Monetary Fund officials about a new stand-by loan. Concerns over public spending and central bank independence had led the international lender to freeze a EUR1bn facility in January.
In an effort to ease frictions with the IMF, last month Serbia amended a new law to give the central bank more autonomy and cut its budget deficit target for 2013 to 3.6% of GDP from the 6.2% expected in 2012. (Reporting By Davide Scigliuzzo; editing by Alex Chambers)
