The first bond platform in Lithuania, BeMyBond, has started distributing a EUR 1 million bond issue for the EIKA Group housing project Užupio Personas. The annual interest rate of the bonds is 9%, the term is 18 months, and investments can be made electronically via the platform from EUR 1,000.
The Užupis Personų bond issue will be distributed until May 29, or until the planned amount is collected, whichever comes first. All individuals and legal entities registered on the BeMyBond bond platform will be able to invest in the issue. The bonds will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, meaning that the first investors will receive them until the goal of 1 million euros is reached.
The funds raised will be used to develop the prestigious residential project “Užupios Personas” in the Užupios district, a favorite of Vilnius residents, at Filaretų g. 25. This residential project offers 56, 24–104 sq. m apartments and several commercial spaces, of which more than 20% have already been sold.
In addition to shareholders’ capital and advance payments from buyers, the project is financed by EUR 8 million in debt, of which EUR 7 million will be a loan from Šiaulių bankas, and the remaining EUR 1 million will be raised through bonds through the BeMyBond platform. The project manager, UAB Baltix projects, belongs to the EIKA group and a private financial investor. Construction work on Užupio personų began in the last quarter of 2023, with completion planned for the second quarter of 2025. The project is managed by UAB EIKA Development.
The Užupis Personų bond issue will be the second time we have issued bonds for a specific project. We see that bonds open up new opportunities: for us – an alternative source of financing, and for investors – a smaller-scale, shorter-term and fixed-yield investment instrument compared to the “traditional” purchase of housing in a project. “EIKA” aims to be an innovative real estate service provider at a strategic level, and the opportunity to invest in our projects via a digital bond platform perfectly meets this goal,” says Martynas Žibūda, CEO of UAB “EIKA Development”.
The EIKA Group has been issuing bonds since 2020, and has issued two bond issues on behalf of the group, one of which has been refinanced. Also, in 2023, the EIKA Group company issued a bond issue to finance the Šiauliai Military Campus, this issue was listed on the Baltic Nasdaq exchange in 2024. Currently, the amount of funds raised through bonds at the group level reaches 18 million euros.
“For more than a year, the market has seen a huge interest in bonds and the topic of investment in general among retail investors, but in many cases these investors were prevented from actively participating in the market by limited availability of bond issues, information barriers and complex processes. We aim to increase the accessibility of this instrument, and the bonds of the “Užupis Personai” project are a great example of this,” says Indrė Dargytė, head of the “BeMyBond” platform.
This is the first issue distributed for the BeMyBond bond investment platform after receiving a crowdfunding service provider license in April of this year under the European Union (EU) Crowdfunding Regulation.