Page 121 - RusRPTApr21

a treble B rating since 2004 of one sort or another, as it take more account of Russia rock solid fundamentals – the low external debt and large currency reserves. The lowest rating it had was CCC in August 2008 following the currency meltdown. The highest rating was Baa1 in March 2013 thanks to the economic rebound that year.
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) rates both Russia’s foreign debt at BBB- with stable outlook and the local debt at BBB.
S&P has also been fairly consistent on Russia’s rating. Its lowest grade was BB+ (negative) awarded in January 2015. The highest was BBB awarded in December 2008.
8.5 Fixed income
The local bond market has been unsettled by the threat of US sanctions and some spill over from the meltdown in Turkey suppressing volumes and driving up yields. In the third week of March MinFin cancelled the auction completely due to heightened market volatility.
8.5.1 Fixed income - bond news
Russian message service Telegram raised $1bn by issuing five-year
convertible bonds in the middle of March. Demand for the bonds, which
121 RUSSIA Country Report April 2021 www.intellinews.com