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bne Invest
May 3, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Russian aluminium major Rusal places first bonds after sanctions
Russian aluminium major Rusal placed the first bonds since the US sanctions were lifted from the company, selling 10-year bonds worth RUB15bn ($230mn) on Moscow Exchange at 9% yield. The de- mand for the placement was high and the issue was increased from the originally proposed RUB10bn.
Last time the company placed domestic bonds was in 2016, while prior to the sanction impact in April 2018 Rusal placed $500mn worth of Eurobonds.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, the credit ratings of the company remained intact after almost a year of sanctions. In February, the US Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed Rusal and other assets of Russian billionaire and Kremlin insider Oleg Deripaska from the US Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN List). In March Fitch Ratings already assigned Rusal a
long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'BB-', with a stable outlook. "Rusal successfully managed its operations under the US sanctions with limited impact," Fitch commented on the rating action, noting that "due to several extensions granted to the company's grace period by the OFAC, Rusal did not bear the full impact of the sanctions."
Subsequently, in April, Rusal had the Ba3 credit rating assigned by Moody's Investors Service, with B1 rating for its credit notes and stable outlook.
"Ratings from two out of three agencies means support for share price should become more pronounced. News supports our buy call on the name and we believe that S&P rating will be released shortly," BCS Global Markets commented on April 5.
Russian billionaire Gutseriev expands oil assets with Afipsky oil refinery
Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev acquired
a controlling stake in the Afipsky oil refinery in the southern Krasnodar region from the deputy CEO of UralSib Bank Yevgeny Kogan, Kommersant business daily reported on April 29 citing unnamed sources.
Kogan, according to the daily, is the son of the owner of UralSib Bank Vladimir Kogan, the former director of the Federal Agency for Construction and Housing and Utilities.
Since 2018 Gutseriev's Safmar Group has been making headlines due to the mega-merger of its electronics retail assets, the consolidation of oil assets, and reported interest in children’s' goods retailer Detsky Mir.
Oil Technologies, part of Gutseriev’s financial group Safmar, now reportedly bought Afipsky for $20mn, with the price being brought down from the original $50mn negotiated between Safmar and Russia's largest bank Sberbank, the refinery’s main creditor.
Safmar could further consolidate the holding in the refinery by acquiring a stake from oil company New Stream Group, while intending to invest RUB100bn in capacity upgrades in the next five years.
The anchor oil asset of Gutseriev Russnef doubled its IFRS net profit in 2018 to RUB14.8bn ($228mn), the company said on March 27.