The bonds with a coupon rate of 4.5% were offered mainly to well-informed investors. The offer was taken up by 65 investors, a release from SIJ said.

The funds raised would help the group implement the planned strategy by 2020 to further optimise production, increase the output at higher value added and continue niche specialisation.

"Considering the bond issue is but the first step in the direction of SIJ as a public joint stock company, we can be pleased with the result," SIJ chairman Anton Chernykh was cited as saying.

He believes that the investors expressed trust in the company's long-term strategy and made a positive assessment of its business capabilities.

SIJ had originally announced a five-year bond issue at the nominal value of EUR 50m.

Chief financial officer Igor Malevanov explained that pre-sale activities in foreign markets had been deliberately conservative: "We are in intensive phase of group consolidation, we are just beginning to get known by the capital markets."

He announced similar activities to continue in international capital markets in the future. "This will be easier after the first bond issue in the Slovenian market," he said.

SIJ group generated EUR 25.5m in net profit on EUR 561.2m in revenue in the first three quarters of the year.