Mriya plans new Eurobond, offers buyback for outstanding notes

Mriya Agro Holding, a top Ukrainian agricultural firm, announced on March 27 that it intends to buy back fully its USD 250 mln Eurobond maturing in 2016. The company is offering a 6.75% premium to par to those who agree to tender their bonds by April 10, and a 3.75% premium to those who agree to sell their bonds by April 24.

In another release, Fitch announced Mriya Agro Holding (MRIYA) is going to tap the fixed income market with a new Eurobond issue to repurchase its outstanding USD 250 mln notes. Mriya is going to issue USD 350 mln in new notes, according to Interfax. Fitch assigned an expected “B” rating for the planned issue, in line with its sovereign rating and that of the outstanding notes.

Alexander Paraschiy: With their prevailing tolerance to global risks, Eurobonds are becoming a very popular instrument of attracting capital to Ukraine this year. Ukrainian entities already made seven successful Eurobond placements in 1Q13 at a total of USD 3.8 bln, or 70% of the amount attracted with this instrument for all of 2012. Moreover, USD 1.8 bln of these placements came from private companies that didn’t tap Eurobonds last year. Therefore, we see a high chance for new placements, possibly from Ferrexpo (FXPO LN), which already postponed an attempt this year, and holding company Donetsksta,l which plans to debut Eurobonds at up to USD 500 mln.

Given Mriya’s low leverage (end-2012 net debt/EBITDA of 1.4x, far below its covenant of 3.0x) and intention to repay existing Eurobonds, we see a high chance for a successful notes placement by the company.