RON-denominated corporate bonds issued increasingly often by foreign institutions allow Romanian private pension funds to invest at yields as high as 20%, a lot higher than those of government bonds sold by the Ministry of Finance, of around 11%. Additionally, such bonds often have EU governments as guarantors, i.e. an AAA rating.
International financial institutions, banks and entities of public administration EU entities now frequently issue RON-denominated bonds, allowing private pension funds in Romania to diversify their range of low risk investments.
Currently, they are practically "prisoners" of the Finance Ministry, mainly investing in government bonds, amid a virtually non-existent Romanian corporate bonds market.
Some foreign issues are multi-currency ones, depending on the needs of the institution which issues them, and do not have a fixed subscription ceiling, with the sums collected later being converted via swap operations.
Institutions such as the EIB (The European Investment Bank), the EBRD (The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) the IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and Danske Bank are among the issuers of RON-denominated bonds, which can even provide a monthly bond flow. Corporate bond issues rated "investment grade" (carrying a low risk for investors), i.e. those in which pension funds usually invest, are lacking on the market.
"There has been an increase in the number of bond issues in RON lately, mainly from entities interested in developing a business of some sort on the Romanian market, and in need of money to finance their operations. An then there are the supranationals, IBRD, EBRD and EIB, which have interests related to the Romanian economy," says Dorin Boboc, investment manager of Allianz-Tiriac Pensii, the second largest company on the mandatory private pensions market (2nd pillar), with over one million clients at the fund it manages.
Corporate bonds are one of the main instruments in which pension funds invest. At present, a quarter of the money of mandatory pension funds is placed in such bonds - around 281 million RON (67 million euros). This is the second largest investment of pension funds, after government bonds, which account for 50% of the portfolio, i.e. 648 million RON (155 million euros).
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