Strong interest in ENERGA Group eurobonds from investors

ENERGA obtained financing in the form of 7-year eurobonds under extremely favourable conditions. The demand from investors exceeded the amount of bonds on offer sevenfold.

As a result of high investor demand, book building for the first issue of EUR 500m worth of eurobonds with 7 years maturity was closed yesterday after a short offering period. Two-thirds of the demand was reported by major and reliable investors from Western Europe.

ENERGA achieved extremely favourable conditions for the issue: the yield on bonds will be 3.298%, and the coupon of 3.250% is at the level of the lowest financing costs among CEE corporate eurobond issuers; the average level in Poland is in the order of 11%. The issue will be registered and listed with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

One week earlier, the Moody’s rating agency assigned a temporary long-term credit rating to the eurobond issue programme at the level of (P)Baa1, with a negative outlook (due to the uncertainty as regards the future ownership changes and the potential influence of new shareholders on the Company’s strategy), and Fitch rated the programme BBB.

“The extremely good conditions of the issue, which may come as a surprise to some observers, reflect the attractiveness of the development strategy of ENERGA Group. The priority to develop the distribution system and renewable energy sources was recognised by international investors”, says Roman Szyszko, Vice President Finance at ENERGA SA.

In the updated investment plan, ENERGA prioritised the development and upgrading of distribution systems, intending to allocate PLN 12.4bn by 2020 to achieve this goal, i.e. half of all investment expenditure. In the coming years, the Group will focus its activities on renewable energy sources and projects characterised by the lowest carbon dioxide emission levels. The development plan will be implemented while maintaining a moderate level of debt.

The issue of eurobonds is the next step in the implementation of the strategy of diversifying financing sources for ENERGA Group. In the first step, ENERGA obtained funds from international financial institutions (EIB, EBRD and NIB) totalling more than PLN 2bn, and in the next step, the funding was supplemented by loans from commercial banks – amounting to approx. PLN 1bn. Last November, ENERGA issued PLN 1bn worth of bonds. The offer was addressed to Polish institutional investors and was a success.

In accordance with the generally applicable rules of the eurobond market, the issuer will be ENERGA Finance AB, a Swedish-based company. The preparatory activities to implement the eurobond issue programme were initiated last year. ENERGA Finance AB may issue eurobonds with maturities of one to ten years.

Performance of ENERGA Group in 2012

ENERGA Group ended the year 2012 with a 7.8% increase in income, up to PLN 11.2bn, and a 7.2% increase in EBITDA to PLN 1.6bn. ENERGA increased its investment expenditure by a full 30% – from PLN 1.4bn in 2011 to PLN 1.9bn last year. Furthermore, the Group improved on its key operational indicators.

• Sales of electricity increased by 6% (from 19.328 TWh to 20.559 TWh).
• Sales of energy distribution services increased by 2% (from 19.6 TWh to 20.1 TWh).
• The number of customers of ENERGA Obrót increased by 3,500 to reach 2.891 million (the number of the largest industrial customers increased by a half).
• The number of customers of ENERGA Operator increased by 25,000 to reach 2.917 million.
• Power outages were cut by half and supply interruptions were reduced by 30% (as measured by SAIDI / SAIFI indicators).
• Staffing was reduced by 3.6%, and costs relating to management and administrative functions were cut down by 9.4%.

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