Bank Of Georgia Makes USD 200 mln Eurobond Placement

The Bank Of Georgia (equity:GEB (Georgia): BUY), Georgia’s largest bank in terms of assets, placed USD 200 mln in five-year  dollar-based Eurobonds, the first in the country’s history. The bonds have a 9% yield, 419 basis points higher than the yield on a Treasury notes maturing in January 2012.  According to the sale’s lead manager Merrill Lynch, investors placed orders for over USD 600 mln in GEB bonds and their price rose to 100.875% of face value immediately following the sale. In November, Bank of Georgia became the first Georgian company to hold and IPO in London. The bank raised just over USD 160 mln. In related news, the bank’s CEO Lado Gurgenidze said in an interview yesterday that the bank had purchased 10% of a small Ukrainian bank and had plans to increase their stake to 100% by March or April. The name of the bank was not disclosed. Concorde Capital placed a 9.9% equity stake in the bank for USD 4.5 mln in 2005. See our desk note from April 17, 2006 for more details.