Serbia’s biggest creditors are the buyers of Eurobonds, to which our country, according to the latest available data from the Public Debt Administration, owes a total of 8.9 billion euros. Who are the buyers of Serbian securities?
Official data from the end of July this year show that Serbia has a debt of 35.07 billion euros, which is 50.07 percent of GDP.
Data on the ownership of government securities are not publicly available, that is, they are not published publicly.
Eurobonds
When buying securities issued by a country, one should distinguish the first (primary) purchase from those that follow it, on the so-called – secondary market.
Nenad Gujaničić, chief broker of Momentum Securities, explains that primary issues of Eurobonds are usually carried out by a syndicate of investment banks. “And, apart from them, the buyers in the primary show are their large clients – institutional investors (mainly investment funds),” explains Gujaničić.
The secondary market takes place mainly through the OTC (over-the-counter market), although, as he adds, part of the turnover is also realized on certain European stock exchanges.
“The secondary market is also intended for larger investors, given that the minimum purchase value for most issues is 100,000 euros. The ownership structure is not publicly disclosed, and it is certainly much more diversified than after the primary sale. “Recently, more and more of our citizens have been buying Eurobonds, considering that they bring a much higher yield than interest on deposits in banks,” our interlocutor points out.
Investors on the domestic market
On the domestic market, buyers of debt securities are mostly domestic banks and their clients, which again boils down to the fact that the ultimate owners, according to Nenad Gujaničić, are mostly foreign banks and international institutional investors.
“Of domestic investors, the most important participants are domestic institutional investors – pension funds, insurance, investment funds… – while domestic individuals and legal entities are marginal in terms of turnover. For these securities, the secondary market is quite weak, it exists both through the OTC and through the Belgrade Stock Exchange, but a large part of these securities are held until their maturity.”
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