Bond Markets
In view of the EIB's considerable funding requirement, the Bank aims, on a permanent basis, to accommodate the wishes of institutional and retail investors in terms of currency, maturity, structure, etc. The strategy of the Bank is to offer large, liquid reference issues to investors, as well as tailor-made issues in a wide range of currencies. In 2007 the EIB borrowed EUR 55 billion (*) through 236 transactions, raising funds in 23 different currencies (four of which were in synthetic format), of which 38% was in EUR, 26% in USD, and 20% in GBP. Issuance volumes for 2008 is expected to be EUR 55 billion.
(*) Including 'pre-funding' of EUR 77 million completed in 2006 for 2007.
In recent years, the EIB has taken a particular interest in fostering the opening-up and development of the markets of the new Member States who joined the EU on 1 May 2004 and 1 January 2007 respectively. This is a continuation of the EIB's longstanding contribution to the development of capital markets. It enables the EIB to offer investors in major currencies of the region as attractive alternatives to existing investment opportunities. Issuing bonds in CZK, HUF and PLN but also in BGN, MTL, RON, SIT and SKK, the EIB has become an important contributor to the development of bond markets in the region.
Next to the Bank's bond offerings in the main currencies EUR, GBP and USD, the EIB has also issued in 28 further currencies (including those in synthetic format) between 2004 and 2007. These include issuance in Australian dollar, Bulgarian lev, Canadian dollar, Czech koruna, Danish krone, Hong Kong dollar, Hungarian forint, Icelandic krona, Japanese yen, Maltese lira, Mexican peso, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone, Polish zloty, Romanian leu, Russian rouble, Slovenian tolar, South African rand, Swedish krona, Swiss franc and Turkish lira. There have also been synthetic issues of Botswana pula, Brazilian real, Egyptian pound, Ghanaian cedi, Indonesian rupiah, Mauritian rupee and Namibian dollar. The size of issues range from EUR 10 million to EUR 5,000 million equivalent. Smaller amounts are in general related to retail and tailor-made issues for institutional investors.
In 2007, the EIB was the largest non-government issuer of TRY, with a total issue volume amounting to over TRY 2 billion (EUR 1.1 billion).
Please click here for a list of useful links relating to the capital markets in the 12 New Member states, the Accession States (Croatia and Turkey), the Candidate State (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) as well as in Russia.
The EIB is maintaining treasury operations in CZK, HUF, PLN, SKK and ZAR, which allows the Bank to retain funding for subsequent lending to borrowers in those currencies. This helps borrowers to avoid foreign exchange risk, but it also enables the EIB remain highly responsive to investor demand.