UAB “Partnerystės Projektai Keturi”, a company belonging to “EIKA Group”, redeems the remaining bonds of the Šiauliai Military Town for 4 million euros on April 28 and pays the accrued interest to investors. “EIKA Group” redeemed the next part of the issue in 2024, and this one is redeeming earlier than the scheduled term, which is allowed by the successfully implemented project.
The construction of the Šiauliai military town was completed in April 2024 – then the facility was successfully transferred to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania. In October 2024, UAB “Partnerystės projektai keturi”, which belongs to “EIKA Group”, redeemed half of the 8 million euro issue, and now, with the help of financing from “Luminor” bank, the remaining part is being redeemed for 4 million euro.
UAB “Partnerystės projektai keturi” subsidiary UAB “Samogitia miestelis” will continue to serve the Šiauliai military campus by providing various services, such as maintenance of premises, cleaning, etc. According to the concluded public-private partnership agreement, it will provide these services for 11 years.
“We see as a very positive signal that bonds are being refinanced by local banks – this shows their growing appetite to lend to public-private partnership projects. These are becoming clear examples of how business and the public sector can work together to strengthen the state,” says Domas Dargis, CEO of EIKA Group.
This issue is quoted on the main bond list of the Nasdaq Baltic market. The issue was subscribed by Baltic pension and investment funds, which are managed by three investment fund managers: UAB SEB investicijų valdymas and UAB Swedbank investicijų valdymas in Lithuania and CBL Asset Management IPAS in Latvia.
“We feel a great responsibility to be able to contribute to strengthening the country’s defense capabilities. In 2023, we allocated 22 million euros for the development of the town, and today we can additionally contribute to the successfully developed project by refinancing the remaining part of the investment. This example shows that local financial institutions can be a reliable partner in implementing such strategic projects,” says Vytis Žegužauskas, Head of Business Clients at Luminor Bank.
“We are pleased to have had the opportunity to invest the assets of SEB pension fund participants in a project of strategic importance to Lithuania and to contribute to increasing the country’s security. This investment was a good example of how to reconcile the interests of pension fund participants, i.e. competitive returns, with the needs of the state,” says Paulius Kabelis, CEO of UAB SEB Investicijų Valdymas.
Tadas Gudaitis, Director of Swedbank Investment Management, adds: “The bond issue issued two years ago was the first time that pension funds operating in the Baltic States contributed to the implementation of the Šiauliai Military Town project, which is being developed on the basis of a public-private partnership. The directly invested funds brought stable returns to pension fund participants and contributed to the development of an important defense infrastructure facility. We hope that this will become a precedent for a more active role of pension funds in implementing such projects in the future, using funds accumulated by the population.”
This is not the only defense infrastructure project being developed by EIKA Group. The group’s EIKA Construction (formerly Eikos statyba) won the tender in August 2024 to implement the design and construction of the first phase of the 125 million euro military town in Rūdninkai. The preparatory phase of this project has already been completed, and work on the installation of field engineering networks and the construction of buildings is about to begin.
EIKA Group and the EIKA Asset Management fund plan to invest in other stages of this project, and other investors are already interested in these opportunities.
In addition to this military campus issue, the EIKA group company has also issued bonds at the project company level for the Užupio Personos project (EUR 1 million), which were issued through the bond platform BeMyBond.