Nasdaq announced that bonds issued by Latvian broadliner ELKO Group have been admitted to trading on the Nasdaq Baltic First North bond market by Nasdaq Riga.
The size of the bond issue is €20m. The bonds have a coupon rate of 6% and a maturity of 5 years. The nominal value of one bond is €1,000.
The issue is the largest ever for ELKO. More than 80 investors from the Baltic States, Germany, and Malta subscribed to the bonds - including banks, pension plans, investment funds, insurance companies, and private investors. The Altum Capital Fund, for which this was the first investment, also participated in the transaction as an investor.
“Demand for IT and consumer electronics has grown rapidly as a result of the pandemic and ELKO ended last year with record-high financial indicators. The bond issue has given us the working capital to respond adequately to market demand while dealing with supply-chain disruption and rising logistics costs”, says Svens Dinsdorfs, the CEO of ELKO Group. “We are pleased with the success of the issue. It showed that there is a lot of private capital in the region and funds are ready to invest in stable companies with prospects for growth. Interest in bonds to diversify the funding structure has deservedly grown. It is a great alternative to bank financing products.”
“ELKO started its growth story on the stock exchange in 2008. With this new listing of bonds, ELKO demonstrates that even during a pandemic companies can attract investments. I hope this example will inspire other Latvian companies to make use of the Baltic capital market to accelerate their development, increase their competitiveness and promote their export capacity”, says Daiga Auziņa-Melalksne, the CEO of Nasdaq Riga and Head of the Nasdaq Baltic Market.
The ELKO bond issue was jointly managed by the financial and investment company Callidus Capital (as a financial consultant) and Signet Bank (as the issue organiser).
Signet Bank serves as the Certified Adviser for ELKO on the Nasdaq Baltic First North market. First North is a multilateral trading facility (MTF) tailored to support growing ambitious companies that want to raise capital and get the visibility and credibility of being a public company.