Issuer: City of Stockholm
Amount: $1 billion
Launched: April 7 1997
Arranger: Lehman Brothers
The long, midnight-sun hours of the Scandinavian summer lend themselves to thoughtful reflection. In the summer of 1996, treasury officials from the City of Stockholm were spending their evenings mulling over the idea of a Euro-MTN programme. By the time autumn began to close in, the idea had become concrete. On April 7, in the boardroom of Lehman Brothers' London offices, representatives of Sweden's capital city were putting their signatures to a $1 billion programme. Just over six months had passed since the idea was given the go-ahead.
Peter Antonsson, Stockholm's chief treasury officer, says the genesis of the programme was trouble-free, but adds: "It inevitably takes a week longer than you think." Martin Goldberg, executive director of fixed income at Lehman Brothers, the programme arranger, agrees Stockholm proved very responsive. "It was one of the smoother arrangerships," he says. "They were demanding but flexible, and we were able to use many provisions from their previous Eurobonds' documents."
Lehman Brothers first visited the city in November, as one of 20 or so banks pitching for the mandate to arrange the programme.