Deutsche Bahn tapped into Germans’ deep-seated affection and incipient nostalgia for their soon-to-be-supplanted national currency last month when it issued what would likely be the last-ever deutsche mark Eurobond. Marks, of course, have been shunted to a siding to make way for the euro.
Deutsche Bahn’s issue didn’t need any big road show to win over investors. Directed unabashedly at retail investors, the securities look like old-fashioned bond certificates, complete with clippable coupons, and bear the engraved likeness of the railway’s Berlin headquarters and its latest high-speed train, the Ice 3. A sheet of ten coupons features fabled Bahn engines from the past 50 years as well as the Frankfurt and Leipzig train stations. Many of the bonds, offered in denominations as low as Dm100 ($45), are likely to end up as framed keepsakes.
The five-year bonds proved so appealing that the issue was boosted from Dm50 million to Dm60 million. Dealers at lead manager Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein were among those clamoring for the securities. “Frankfurt and London alone brought me up to Dm40,000, at 100 apiece,” says Matthias Wittenburg, DKW’s bond syndication boss.
“We all still love our deutsche mark, and we wanted to keep a little bit of our history,” says Marcus Mehlinger, head of funding at Deutsche Bahn. What if Germans decide to hang on to their collectible bond certificates instead of redeeming them - will the railway reap a huge savings? “All I know,” says Mehlinger, is that Deutsche Bahn “will save at least Dm500 to Dm600, because those are the bonds I am collecting personally.”
