Exclusive: Slovenia DMO head: ‘There Is a Possibility That We Issue a Panda Bond’

28 February 2025

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – Slovenia might tap the Panda bond market, according to Marjan Divjak, Director General of the Treasury Directorate of Slovenia's Ministry of Finance.

In an interview with Econostream on February 27 (transcript here), Divjak said that there was ‘a possibility that Slovenia issues in Panda bond format’.

With regard to 2025 issuance, Slovenia could tap the Samurai bond market as long as market conditions were favourable, he said.

‘Slovenia remains open to exploring such opportunities if market conditions are conducive and the cost of funding is comparable to the cost of funding in euros’, he said.

Divjak announced that he expected another benchmark-sized syndication this year, after the syndication of its first 30-year bond earlier in 2025.

He described the transaction as ‘highly successful’ and revealed that demand for it was over €3.2 billion.

‘This strong demand reflects investor confidence in Slovenia's economic stability and fiscal management’, he added.

The most attractive part of the curve for investors was the 10-year sector, he said, but recent evidence implied that longer tenors were also highly demanded.

Asked if he envisioned issuing long and ultra-long-dated tenors in 2025, Divjak said that ‘[t]he baseline scenario is that in the medium term the existing long-dated bonds are increased in size to enhance secondary market liquidity.’

On the ultra-long segment, Divjak said that Slovenia would consider tapping this ‘to a minor extent on a reverse inquiry basis as part of liability management operations’, where the principal objective would be an increase of liquidity.

Slovenia's first digital bond, issued in 2024, could lead to more such bonds, he said.

‘While no specific date has been set, given the success of the first digital bond, further issuances are to be considered’, he said regarding a new digital bond issuance.

Slovenia was also considering expanding sustainability-related instruments, he said.

‘The current plan is to issue a 10-year sustainability-linked bond, aiming to raise between €1-1.5 billion of funding’, he indicated.

Regarding potential new buybacks, Divjak said that there had been no announcements on precise exchange operations for 2025, but that these would in any case focus on bonds close to maturity or with low liquidity in the secondary market.