Bank of Estonia authorized to buy Elering bonds
The European Central Bank gave the Bank of Estonia permission to buy bonds of state-owned power transmission system operator Elering.
The exception was made as the Bank of Estonia is unable to buy Estonian government bonds, as there are none available. The bank also wished to buy shares of the much larger Eesti Energia, but that request was rejected as the company, unlike Elering, competes against private businesses.
No purchase of Elering bonds has been made yet and much will depend on the price and availability before the Bank of Estonia will move for Elering bonds. The sums in question will be small in any case, as central banks are only allowed to buy a fourth of any bond emission, that figure calculates to 56 million euros for Elering.
The Bank of Estonia is obliged to buy around 120 million euros worth of bonds each month as part of the European Central Bank's quantitative easing program. Estonia's total will be three billion euros by September 2016. So far, the Bank of Estonia has been forced to purchase bonds in international organizations such as the European Investment Bank.
Editor: J.M. Laats