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Eastern Europe
March 29, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
Russia open to placing more Eurobonds
this year
The Russian finance ministry is ready to place more Eurobonds in 2019 if the market environ- ment is favourable, the head of the ministry’s debt department Konstantin Vishkovsky said on March 26, as cited by Reuters.
Last week the ministry tested the investor senti- ment amid sanction risks and swiftly placed $3bn and €0.75bn worth of Eurobonds. This was the big- gest Russian sovereign US dollar issue in six years. Total demand for both issues was high at $12bn.
The ministry has budgeted $3bn of net exter-
nal borrowings for 2019 overall and has already beaten the plan. But "the total borrowing pro- gramme is still there, its large. We can still place [Eurobonds] to diversify the [financing] sources
Russian Railways, metals major Evraz plan Eurobonds
Russian Railways will start a roadshow for Eurobond placement on March 28, RIA Novosti reported on March 26 citing unnamed financial industry sources. Reportedly the railroad monopoly plans to place six-to-seven year bonds in the placement organised by Sberbank CIB, VTB Capital, and JP Morgan.
and given good market conditions," according to Vishkovsky.
Previously this week Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the issuance of OFZ federal bonds could be limited after overselling the two Eurobond issues. Analysts surveyed by Vedomosti daily believe that a RUB50bn cut will not be market-moving for OFZs. Recently the finance ministry has been holding un- limited weekly OFZ auctions and has managed to sell over RUB50bn per week in February and March.
On the weekly Wednesday March 20 auction, which coincided with the Eurobond placement, the ministry still sold RUB61.4bn ($0.96bn) of seven-year bonds to RUB73.3bn demand, as well as RUB10.5bn 15-year bonds.
Last week Russia's finance ministry tested the investor sentiment amid sanction risks and swiftly placed $3bn and €0.75bn worth of sovereign Eurobonds. This made the biggest Russian sovereign US dollar issue in six years. Total demand for both issues was high at $12bn.