The public offering of Bigbank AS (Bigbank) unsecured subordinated bonds (the Offering) ended on Friday, 18 October 2024. It was the third series under Bigbank’s unsecured subordinated bond programme, conducted based on the base prospectus of the subordinated bond programme. Under the programme, Bigbank can raise up to 30 million euros in total.
During the Offering, up to 3,000 unsecured subordinated bonds, each with a nominal value of EUR 1,000, a maturity date of 23 October 2034, and a fixed interest rate of 6.5% per annum, payable quarterly, were offered by Bigbank. In the event of oversubscription, Bigbank had the right to increase the volume of the Offering by up to 5,000 bonds, bringing the total to a maximum of 8,000 bonds. The Offering was carried out in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
789 investors participated in the subscription and submitted subscription orders for the subordinated bonds in the total amount of 8.7 million euros. Therefore, the base issue volume of 3 million euros was oversubscribed by nearly 3 times. Bigbank exercised its right to increase the volume of the Offering, bringing the total volume of the Offering to 5 million euros.
The Management Board of Bigbank decided to allocate the bonds according to the following principles:
- All subscription orders from the same subscriber were summed up;
- Subscriptions by investors up to the amount of 30,000 euros were accepted in full;
- Employees of companies belonging to Bigbank group were allocated 100% of the amount subscribed;
- Investors were allocated 2.75% of the amount subscribed exceeding 30,000 euros;
- The number of bonds with decimal places was rounded to the nearest whole number.
Martin Länts, Chairman of the Management Board of Bigbank, thanked all investors who participated in the public issue for their trust in the bank's strategy and growth prospects. "The subscription results show that investor confidence in Bigbank's future plans remains very high, and the interest rate on the bonds offered may have been slightly too high, considering the rapid developments in the interest rate environment over the past month. With the capital raised, Bigbank will be even stronger in implementing its business strategy, planning to continue growing primarily in the housing and corporate loan segments while ensuring compliance with established capital requirements," commented Martin Länts.
The Bonds are expected to be transferred to the securities accounts of investors on or around 23 October 2024 and the first trading day of the bonds on the Baltic Bonds List of Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange is expected to be on or around 24 October 2024.
Bigbank AS (www.bigbank.eu), with over 30 years of operating history, is a commercial bank owned by Estonian capital. As of 30 June 2024, the bank's total assets amounted to 2.6 billion euros, with equity of 252.8 million euros. Operating in nine countries, the bank serves more than 150,000 active customers and employs over 500 people. The credit rating agency Moody's has assigned Bigbank a long-term deposit rating of Ba1, as well as a baseline credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA of Ba2.
Argo Kiltsmann
Member of the Management Board
Tel: +372 53 930 833
Email: Argo.Kiltsmann@bigbank.ee
www.bigbank.ee