Sovereign funding: Sovereigns step up to tougher times for funding

When their traditional German investor base was blown away by the financial crisis, sovereign funding officials in central Europe had to adjust to a world of hefty spreads and hard work. Two years on, their efforts are paying handsome dividends. Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker reports.

HAD YOU MENTIONED central Europe to a group of DCM bankers three years ago the likely response would have been a chorus of smothered yawns. Stable, well funded and on the verge of eurozone accession, countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary had little need of the investment banking community. They accessed the global bond markets maybe once a year, and when they did they issued a billion or two of euro-denominated paper in standard maturities that mostly found its way into the portfolios of a few big German and Austrian buyers.

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