Fixed-income securities

Bulgaria has taken on new foreign debt amounting to 3 billion euros and 1.5 billion US dollars, announced the Ministry of Finance. As reported by BNR, the triple tranche of Bulgarian bonds generated significant interest among investors, allowing the country to secure highly favorable terms.

The government is offering the opportunity for tax debtors to rejoin any arrangements that they did not keep up with in the past. In particular, they can rejoin the permanent regulation of 24 to 48 tranches, the special provisions of the pandemic and the energy crisis (72 installments), as well as the arrangements of 100 and 120 tranches.

Yapı Kredi, Turkey's third-largest private lender, announced on May 21 it had successfully inked a $962 million syndicated loan agreement for the first half of the year with the participation of 42 banks from 20 countries.

The criteria for the state subsidy program for business loans taken out by companies battered by the pandemic will be discussed in conference calls the Finance Ministry will have with European Union officials next week.

Loans whose repayments have been frozen due to the pandemic add up to 30 billion euros, concerning some 400,000 individual and corporate borrowers, according to the Hellenic Bank Association. The moratorium on tranche payments expires on March 31.

Taxpayers and companies with debts to the state have until Thursday to apply for re-entering the payment plans of 100-120 tranches, and must also pay December's installment.

The tranches missed as a result of the pandemic - from March up to November - will be added after the end of the debt settlement program.

The government is offering tens of thousands of taxpayers and corporations the chance to return to the 100- or 120-installment debt repayment programs, after submitting an amendment in Parliament on Wednesday.

The Finance Ministry is planning a new scheme for the settlement of outstanding debts to the state in 100 or 120 installments, fearing the accumulation of a new generation of arrears due to the health crisis.