Signet Bank confidently ranked first in terms of the volume and number of bond issues arranged for Latvian companies in 2022

Signet Bank confidently ranks first in terms of the volume and number of bond issues arranged for Latvian companies in 2022, according to data compiled by Nasdaq CSD and Bloomberg.

In 2022, Signet Bank arranged 13 bond issues for Latvian companies, helping to raise EUR 117 million. According to the Bank’s estimates, last year saw a total of 22 issues of Latvian corporate bonds, which enabled the companies to raise EUR 245 million. Despite only one large bond issue in Latvia in 2022 – by AS Latvenergo, raising EUR 100 million, interest from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this type of financing continued to increase, as evidenced by the growing number of bond issuers and their diversity in the domestic market.

Analyzing the current range of Baltic issuers, trends show that companies use bonds for various purposes, for example, to finance their working capital (Given Jewellery, Longo Group, ELKO Grupa), to finance their investments and M&A plans, in particular (CleanR Grupa), as well as to simplify and streamline the structure of obligations (Coffee Address Holding). Bonds as a source of financing are also widely used among real estate companies – both in financing development projects and as an additional source of funds at the holding group level, as well as in the non-bank lending sector, which traditionally has limited access to bank financing due to the industry specifics.

We are pleased with the results achieved last year. We see a growing interest in capital market investments, especially in bonds of local companies, and I have a positive view of the availability of financing for local businesses in 2023. Thanks to the work we have done in recent years to develop the local capital market in cooperation with the Bank of Latvia, Finance Latvia Association and state institutions, local entrepreneurs now have an alternative to bank loans, which in times of economic downturn are less accessible than before.

Roberts Idelsons, Chairman of the Board of Signet Bank