IN THE LATE 1990s, when the EU accession programme
was laid out for 10 eastern and central European countries,
Hungary soon established itself as the hot issuer. In terms
of volume and sophistication it was the leading borrower
among the accession states and so the most sought after
client for investment bank mandate hunters.
However, Hungary has not been to the foreign-currency bond
market for two years and Poland has now established itself as the
new leader. As Peter Malik, head of emerging market syndication at
CSFB, says: "Poland has picked up Hungary's mantle. It's easily the
most interesting issuer in terms of issuance volume and
sophistication."
Poland has a big public debt and hence big financing needs.
This, combined with the expertise of its treasury team, means lots
of interesting and large issues. In the past 12 months, for
example, the sovereign has undertaken a Paris Club debt buy-back
from Brazil, has called...
