Issuer: Republic of Italy
Date: August 1998
Amount: £300 million ($492 million)
Bookrunner: Barclays Capital
Since putting its signature on an $8 billion debt instrument programme in July last year, Italy has taken the Euro-MTN market by storm, making the first issue of its programme worthy of our MTN deal of the year award.
The programme, rumoured as far back as 1990, was greeted with considerable excitement. Roberto Isolani, managing director responsible for debt capital markets in southern Europe at Warburg Dillon Read, says: “They are probably amongst the most professional of borrowers.”
He continues: “When they do a transaction, they read the market conditions and consider the cost, the rationale and the expected performance of the deal. It is this which gets them an outstanding reputation.”The inaugural issue of the programme on August 4 was led by Barclays Capital, with HSBC acting as co-arranger. It was a £300 million ($492.08 million) 30-year fixed rate deal with a benchmark of 48 basis points over Libor.
Roman Schmidt, managing director at Barclays Capital, says: “It was a relatively easy deal to execute. Most of the demand came from UK institutional investors and the deal was fully placed that same day.