Bigbank public offering of subordinated bonds oversubscribed five times

The base volume of the public offering of the subordinated bonds of Bigbank that ended on Friday, 10 February 2023 was oversubscribed by more than five times and its total volume turned out to be 15 million euros. Trading with the new Bigbank bonds on the Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange is expected to commence on Friday, 17 February.

A total of 1,887 investors participated in the offering, subscribing subordinated bonds in the total amount of approximately 26.9 million euros. Bigbank used the option to increase the volume of the offering by up to 10,000 bonds as a result of which the total volume of the offering grew from 5 million euros to 15 million euros and the whole 35-million-euro programme of unsecured subordinated bonds launched in the autumn of 2022 was accomplished.

Martin Länts, Chairman of the Bigbank Management Board, thanked all investors who participated in the public offering for their confidence in Bigbank’s strategy and growth prospects. “I am happy that Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian investors and capital markets have noticed our achievements and have faith in our continued success, demonstrated by the five-fold oversubscription of the offer. With its high return on capital, Bigbank has been one of the fastest growing banks in Estonia in recent years, and we intend to stay on this course, following our renewed operational strategy,” Länts said. “The 15 million euros raised by the bond offer will help us meet the additional capital requirements prescribed by the regulator at the end of last year and realise our growth plans both in the field of home loans and corporate finance. We wish to give strong competition in these sectors to large universal banks in the Baltics and through that profitably grow our business volumes and market share,” added Länts. As a next step in its programme to raise capital, Bigbank shall organise a non-public offering of AT1 bonds in the near term, which is available only to professional clients. These bonds shall not be listed on the stock exchange. 

The Management Board of Bigbank decided to allocate the subordinated bonds of the offering just ended between investors in accordance with the following principles:

• All subscription orders of all investors up to 10,000 euros were satisfied in full;
• The employees, members of the management boards and supervisory boards of the companies belonging to the Bigbank group were allocated 100% of their subscribed volume;
• Investors were allocated 32.7% of their subscribed amount that exceeded 10,000 euros.

The offering was part of the second series of the unsecured subordinated bond programme created by Bigbank. It was conducted on the basis of the base prospectus of the subordinated bond programme approved by the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority on 5 September 2022. During the public offering Bigbank offered up to 5,000 unsecured subordinated bonds with the name of EUR 8.00 Bigbank subordinated bond 23-2033, with the nominal value of EUR 1,000 each, the maturity date 16 February 2033 and fixed interest rate of 8% per annum, payable quarterly (the first interest payment will be made on 16 May 2023). Pursuant to the prospectus, Bigbank had the right to increase the volume of the offering to up to 15,000 bonds in case of oversubscription. The public offering was carried out in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The bonds will be transferred to the investors’ securities accounts on or about 16 February 2023 and their first day of trading in the Baltic Bond List of Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange is on or about 17 February 2023.

Bigbank operates in nine countries, has 131,000 active clients and more than 500 employees.

On 1 July 2022 the Moody’s Credit Rating Agency gave the Bigbank bank deposits in foreign and local currencies a rating of Baa3 on the long-term rating scale and Prime-3 on the short-term rating scale. 

Additional information:

Argo Kiltsmann
Member of the Management Board
Tel: +372 53 930 833
E-mail: [email protected] 
www.bigbank.ee

Important information

This notice is an advertisement for securities within the meaning of the Regulation No 2017/1129/EU of 14 June 2017 of the European Parliament and of the Council and does not constitute an offer to sell the Bigbank unsecured subordinated bonds or an invitation to subscribe to the bonds.

The information contained in this notice is not intended to be published, distributed, or transmitted, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, or in any other country or under any circumstance where publication, sharing or transmission would be unlawful. Bigbank’s unsecured subordinated bonds will be publicly offered only in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the sale or offer of the subordinated bonds shall not take place in any jurisdiction where such offer, invitation or sale would be unlawful without the exception or qualification of law.