CASE STUDY: Tajikistan Opens Floodgates and Makes Strong Debut with USD500mn Eurobond

CASE STUDY: Tajikistan Opens Floodgates and Makes Strong Debut with USD500mn Eurobond

By: Bonds & Loans

Published: 18 April 2018 05:41

 
The Central Asian Republic saw 9x peak oversubscription and impressive yield tightening of nearly 900bp with its inaugural Eurobond transaction to source funds for the construction of the world’s tallest dam.
Background

In summer 2017 Tajikistan, the minute landlocked Central Asian republic was looking to kickstart the ambitious Rogun hydropower dam project. The dam, construction on which began back in the 1970s but halted at the fall of the Soviet Union due to lack of funding or resources – would at its completion become the largest in the world, have an installed capacity of 3,600MW and – its creators hope –supply electricity for the whole region.

The funding for the project has been sourced from different sources, at various stages of its development. Construction of the dam was suspended in August 2012 pending the World Bank assessment, and in 2010 Tajikistan launched an IPO to raise USD1.4bn to finish construction of the dam. By April 26 of that year the Tajik government had raised just USD184mn, enough for two years of construction.

However, following the coming on board of one of Italy’s most prominent and renouned construction firms, SaliniImpregilo, the overall cost was set at USD3.9bn mark, and the Tajik government began to explore financing options, eventually deciding to tap the Eurobond market for the first time in its history with a USD500mn benchmark 10-year issue.

Transaction Breakdown

In September 2017 the Republic of Tajikistan took advantage of favourable market conditions to successfully price its debut Eurobond transaction ahead of a busy pipeline of other issuers targeting the autumn execution window.

Prior to announcing the transaction, Tajikistan carried out an intense 5-day roadshow in Zurich, London, Boston and New York, receiving positive feedback, with high degree of engagement from a large number of US and UK accounts.

The order book opened at on September 7 with IPTs at the 8% area, and already within the first 30 minutes it reached USD1bn. The bookbuilding momentum was sustained and at 13:50 CET the volume of orders exceeded USD3bn. A price guidance was released upon the US market open in the 7.50% area, with the deal size settling at USD500mn.

The orderbook reached peak orders of USD4.5bn, equating to 9x oversubscription, with overwhelming investor demand tightening the yield further to 7.125%. The granular final order book of over USD3.1bn (6.2x oversubscription), and comprised of almost 300 accounts, resulted in the placement of a USD500mn 10-year amortising deal.

The book saw fairly balanced distribution by geography: 38% of the notes were placed with US-based accounts, 35% went to Europe, 24% to the UK and the remaining 3% were picked up by Asian and Middle Eastern investors.

By type, the vast majority of the notes were snapped up by fund managers (85%), another 6% went to banks and private banks, and the remaining 9% - to hedge funds.

All of the proceeds will be used to finance the Rogun dam construction project, which is expected to have a ground-breaking effect on the country’s economy, as well as on the region more broadly.

source: http://www.bondsloans.com/news/article/1839/case-study-tajikistan-opens-floodgates-and-ma