Albania could borrow up to 500 mln euros next year - Cani

Tue Jun 3, 2014

(Reuters) - Albania could borrow up to 500 million euros ($680 million) in its second ever Eurobond or syndicated loan next year, depending on the mood of the market, Finance Minister Shkelqim Cani said on Tuesday.
Faced with high financing needs for its budget, Albania has borrowed 331 million euros from the International Monetary Fund and $220 million from the World Bank as well as from its domestic market, but needs to raise funds on top of this.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a finance conference in Vienna, Cani said the Adriatic nation had "many options" from which to chose and had started initial talks to sound out potential investors.
Albania has not yet decided whether to borrow in dollars or euros and was "seeing options on both of them", Cani said.
"We know 300 million euros is a necessity but we can jump to 500 (million). It depends on how we will see the market and the situation," Cani said.
"We can jump to get a syndicated loan, a loan, or a Eurobond. It is an open issue," Cani, a former central bank governor, said.
Albania borrowed 300 million euros in its debut Eurobond in October 2010 at a rate of 7.5 percent. That five-year Eurobond matures next year. (Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by James Macharia and John Stonestreet)