ÁKK adds €100 mln to domestic euro bond series

Hungary's Government Debt Management Agency (ÁKK) increased the offer for the second series of the domestic three-year Premium Euro Bond (PEMAK) on sale since the middle of January by €100 million to €800 million, ÁKK announced on Tuesday. The figures suggest that sales of the bonds picked up in April after dropping to gross €26 million in March. ÁKK offered the €500 million second PEMAK series from the middle of January, and raised the offer by €200 million at the end of March. With about €450 million sold of the series by the end of February, March-April sales totalled about €250 million. PEMAK sales were launched last November, and reached €309 million by the end of 2012. The €1 billion first series was sold in less than two months. Per month sales jumped to €1.037 billion in January but slowed to €104 million in February. Big early redemptions in March, worth €472 million, coupled with low sales, reduced the PEMAK stock to €978 million by the end of March. Some sources cited in the Hungarian media have speculated that oil and gas company MOL may have been behind both the big purchase in January and the big redemption in March. PEMAK is the first Hungarian domestic euro-denominated government paper. It pays 2.5 percentage points over the eurozone's harmonised consumer price index (HICP). The bond was mainly designed for retail investors, but there are no limitations on its buyers. Retail investors held 18.5% of the outstanding stock, domestic institutional investors held 76.8% and foreign investors held 4.7% at the end of March.