BOV apply for Bond Issue

This afternoon Bank of Valletta plc announced that it has applied with the Listing Authority requesting approval of a Prospectus in respect of a 12-month Debt Issuance Programme. The maximum aggregate principal amount of Notes Issued under the Programme will not exceed €125 million (or the equivalent in any other currency). The Bank also applied in respect of the First Tranche of Noted to be issued under the Programme to be admitted to the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange. The Bank explained that the funds will be used for its general corporate and funding purposes particularly to further enhance its already strong liquidity position in anticipation of more stringent regulatory requirements in the years ahead. Further details on the Debt Issuance Programme and First Tranche will be available in the Prospectus which will be published after receiving approval from the Regulator.

On the secondary market, during this morning’s trading session on the Borza, the bonds of Corinthia Finance plc and International Hotel Investments plc recovered from recent declines on renewed demand. In fact, the 6.25% Corinthia Finance plc 2019 climbed by 5.1 percentage points to 91.1% whilst the 6.8% IHI plc 2013 jumped 600 basis points to regain the par level. This recovery follows the recent comments made by the IHI Group Chairman Mr Alfred Pisani with respect to the potential sale of the 12 luxury apartments situated adjacent to the recently opened hotel in London and plans for the injection of new equity to drive further property acquisitions in other key cities such as Paris and Rome.

The Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index declined marginally to close at 975.366 points as the benchmark Eurozone yields slightly recovered to regain the 3.04% level. Nonetheless, serious concerns on the sustainability of the sovereign debt of peripheral EU countries and the fear of contagion across the whole bloc persist.

In respect of local equities, trading activity continued to diminish with only three equities active during this morning’s session. The MSE Share Index retreated by 0.1% back to 3,396.069 points as the share price of Bank of Valletta plc eased 0.7% lower to close at the €2.81 level on volumes of over 10,000 shares.

Meanwhile GO plc moved 0.7% higher to regain the €1.36 level across a single trade of 2,000 shares. The Group is scheduled to hold its Annual General Meeting on 8 June.

The only other active equity today was HSBC Bank Malta plc which closed unchanged at the €2.98 level after easing from an intra-day high of €3.00. Four trades amounting to just over 2,000 shares transacted today.