Trust your company’s growth potential to a local bank – Signet Bank

Business development requires capital raising, and bond issuance can be one of the most effective ways to obtain the necessary funds. Although there may be some thoughts about using this type of financial instruments, this is an important and promising solution that is certainly worth considering to achieve financial stability and growth.

Signet Bank is a local bank whose activities are aimed at financing and managing the capital of local entrepreneurs and their companies. Since the beginning of 2021, by arranging bond placement transactions and issuing loans for business development, Signet Bank has helped companies to attract more than a total of EUR 400 million in financing.

In 2022, Signet Bank was an important partner in raising capital for local entrepreneurs. With 13 bond issues, the Bank managed to raise a total of EUR 117 million for the implementation of domestic business development plans and objectives. 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.

Benefits of bond issues

Bond issues are one of the most stable ways to obtain financial resources, since specific interest rates and maturity dates are set. This allows companies to plan and forecast their financial situation in the long term, thereby helping to eliminate risks and avoid unpredictable costs. Also, bond issues can help companies expand their investment network by attracting new investors. This, in turn, may provide an opportunity to raise additional funding to support company growth and development.

Bond issue as a tool to achieve various business goals

Companies use bonds for various purposes, for example, to finance working capital, as is the case with such Latvian companies as Given Jewellery, Longo Group, ELKO Grupa.

Elko Group’s bond issue arranged by Signet Bank in a relatively short period of time and negotiations with investors resulted in demand 2.5 times higher than originally available. The bond issue provided the necessary working capital not only to keep the company competitive, but also to continue its growth

Svens Dinsdorfs, Director of Elko Group

Companies also use bond issuance as a solution to finance their investment plans (CleanR Grupa), as well as to simplify and streamline the structure of their obligations (Coffee Address Holding).

We were faced with a non-standard situation, and our main requirement was to be able to control the project budget internally on our own, rather than sending each bill to the bank for approval. It was the best decision to cooperate with Signet Bank and issue bonds to raise funding – together we succeeded in attracting local investors specifically: 85% of the Group’s bondholders are from Latvia!

Guntars Kokorevičs, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CleanR

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 significantly increased interest in investments in the capital market, especially in bonds of domestic companies. 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

Through bond issues and solutions offered by Signet Bank, Latvian companies have the opportunity to develop their business potential and become more recognizable in the Latvian capital markets. There is only one step left to find out your business growth potential – please fill out the application.