WFW advises Costamare on US$120m bond issuance in Greece
Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) acted as English law counsel to Costamare Participations Plc (“Costamare Participations”) on the issuance and public offering of a US$120m corporate bond on the Athens Stock Exchange, guaranteed by Costamare Inc. (“Costamare”).
This was the first bond issued by a shipping company to be traded on the Athens Stock Exchange. WFW advised Costamare on the comprehensive review of its loan portfolio and certain other transaction documents so as to provide a due diligence report and English law legal opinion, required by the underwriters for the final issuance of the bond.
Costamare Participations is a newly established subsidiary of Costamare, the third largest container shipowner in the world. Costamare is a Marshall Islands corporation with a fleet currently of 82 vessels.
The WFW Athens Assets & Structured Finance team that advised Costamare was led by Partner Vassiliki Georgopoulos, supported by Associate Alexi Remoundos.
Vassiliki commented: “We are delighted to have advised Costamare on this milestone transaction, the first ever bond issuance for the shipping sector in Greece. This deal highlights the firm’s standing as a leading law firm worldwide for large scale shipping projects.”
Anastassios Gabrielides, General Counsel at Costamare, said: “We are proud to be the first shipping company to offer bonds in Greece and list them on the Athens Exchange. We hope that this ground-breaking transaction will be a precursor of similar transactions to follow”.
Alpha Bank further optimises its capital structure with a successful Euro 500 million Tier 2 bond issuance
On the back of having recently announced the signing of the landmark Galaxy transaction amidst the pandemic and despite volatile markets, Alpha Bank successfully placed today a Euro 500 million, Tier 2 bond with a diverse range of institutional investors. This transaction marks the second consecutive issuance for Alpha Bank supporting the tightest priced Tier 2 capital layer among Greek Financial Institutions.
The subordinated bond has a 10.25-year maturity and is callable anytime between year 5 and year 5.25 with a coupon of 5.5%. The bond is listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange – EuroMTF Market. The issue was met with strong institutional support, with an order book subscribed by circa two times.
Maintaining strong capital ratios and ample buffers over requirements has been and remains core to Alpha Bank’s strategy.
This transaction demonstrates the management’s continued commitment to deliver on the Strategic Plan presented to the investor community in November 2019, of which Tier 2 issuance was an integral part.
The issuance itself further optimises the Bank’s capital structure and strengthens its Total Capital Ratio by circa 1.25% (pro-forma for Galaxy).
Moreover, it diversifies its capital sources, while increasing Alpha Bank’s surplus above overall capital requirements, allowing for an appropriate headroom for the Bank to pursue its further NPE reduction initiatives and continue its transformation plan towards its stated profitability targets.
Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Nomura acted as joint bookrunners and Citi was the structuring advisor on the transaction.