The subscription period for bonds of the Republic of Estonia ended on 9 September 2024. The total demand for the bonds reached 821 million euros. Thus, the volume of the issue was oversubscribed more than four times. A total of 28 professional and 7,304 retail investors participated in the public offering of bonds. Retail investors subscribed for bonds in the amount of 29 million euros. During the offering, up to 2 million bonds with a total volume of 200 million euros were offered on the basis of the Republic of Estonia's domestic bond programme. Estonian retail investors are allocated 100 per cent of the volume subscribed by them, Estonian professional investors are allocated on average 26 per cent of the volume subscribed by them, and international investors are allocated on average 13 per cent of the volume subscribed by them. "The offer created excitement and great interest in the market; it was talked about a lot, and almost all of the important players of the financial market in the region subscribed to the bonds of the Republic of Estonia. We cannot offer to the professional investors the entire amount of bonds subscribed by them because, as we promised before, Estonian retail investors are preferred in the allocation," said Janno Luurmees, head of the State Treasury Department of the Ministry of Finance. "While we have already offered bonds to professional investors several times, we are offering bonds to retail investors for the first time - a significant step towards creating a low-risk financial instrument has been taken. The participation rate of private individuals in the offering was as expected, and those who could not subscribe to the bonds as a part of the offering will be able to buy them from the Tallinn Stock Exchange in the future," Luurmees said. Mihkel Torim, head of investment banking at LHV, said that it was one of Estonia's biggest issues in recent years. "The attractive valuation of the bonds of the Republic of Estonia is confirmed by the strong oversubscription of the issue, the lower than usual nominal value of the bond also enabled higher involvement - it brought 3,350 small investors who purchased bonds worth up to 1,000 euros," said Torim. According to Swedbank's head of capital markets, Allan Marnot, a low-risk instrument is now available on the Estonian capital market, which was not available before. "There was great interest in the issue throughout the Baltics and also further afield, for example in Germany. The four-fold oversubscription ensures demand for the bond in the secondary market, which provides additional assurance to retail investors who purchased the bonds from the issue. The issue showed that Estonians are active investors and that financial education and awareness of the importance of investing are on the rise in Estonia. Considering the population, there are more government bond investors in Estonia than in Slovenia, where 9,427 investors subscribed to three-year bonds," said Marnot. Trading with the bonds of the Republic of Estonia on the Government Bonds List of the Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange will start on or around 17 September 2024. The maturity date of the bonds is 16 September 2026 when the Republic of Estonia will redeem the bonds by repayment of the initial nominal value. In addition, a fixed interest of 3.3 per cent per annum is paid, and interest payments are annual. The Republic of Estonia The State Treasury Department of the Ministry of Finance Suur-Ameerika 1, Tallinn 10122, Estonia treasury@fin.ee
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