Page 35 - RusRPTSept22

means that in the coming months, we can expect layoffs in Russian companies, recruiters predict: if employers are obliged to resolve the issue with non-residents, then for them this is an extra pain, writes Forbes.
Previously, companies could look at the “remote workers” who left the country for a while through their fingers. Now the situation has changed. Two employees of Russian IT companies told The Bell that their employers have begun to aggressively ask their remote workers where they are and how long they plan to stay there. Both of them decided to leave the country, as they left the country and do not plan to return in the near future.
2.12 Russia’s MinFin mulls yuan bond issue
Russia’s Ministry of Finance says it may issue bonds denominated in yuan after two of Russia’s leading corporations successfully issued bonds denominated in the Chinese currency in the last month.
Russia is going through a period of yuanization as it turns to one of the few widely international currencies it can still use following the imposition of the SWIFT sanctions that were imposed only days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February and effectively puts the dollar off limits for Russian banks.
The volume of yuan traded on the Moscow Exchange has been growing very fast in the last month. It was the third most traded currency in terms of volume of foreign exchange trading on the Moscow Exchange in July, and will soon take second place, experts say.
Russia’s retail banks are also starting to offer depositors yuan-denominated retail accounts as the population are also switching their hard currency savings from dollars to yuan.
On July 27 and 28, aluminium producer Rusal placed the first ever yuan-denominated bonds in Russia to high demand: two bonds with a two year maturity worth a total of CNY5bn and a 3.9% coupon. Russian gold producer Polyus followed with the second issue on August 24: a CNY4.5bn ($658mn) five-year note at 3.8% that was heavily oversubscribed. Both companies borrowed on terms that were noticeably better than they could have expected if they had placed securities on a foreign market and commanded a yield on a par with the strongest US issued yuan bonds.
Now the Ministry of Finance is also considering the possibility of entering the market with bonds in Chinese currency, a source close to the government told Vedomosti on August 24.
Vedomosti reports that some changes to legislation need to be made and the Ministry sources said it would be preferable to attract some Chinese investors to participate in the issue. The Ministry currently doesn’t need to raise any international capital, but would like to go ahead as a benchmarking exercise and create the resource should it be needed further down the road.
35 RUSSIA Country Report September 2022 www.intellinews.com