FILE PHOTO: Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov attends a session of the Moscow Financial Forum in Moscow, Russia September 6, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
June 8, 2019
ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) – Russia is considering issuing a sovereign Eurobond as market conditions are currently favorable, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
In March, Russia raised $3 billion in a new dollar-denominated Eurobond and 750 million euros ($850 million) in a top-up issue of an existing euro-denominated Eurobond.
“We would have borrowed now probably on better terms than at the beginning of the year,” Siluanov told reporters on the sidelines of an economic forum late on Friday.
He declined to say if that could happen this month or later.
Sergei Storchak, a deputy finance minister, was cited as saying on Saturday that Russia could top up an existing Eurobond issue denominated in the same currencies as before.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a G20 ministerial meeting in Japan, Storchak did not rule out Russia tapping the market for a second time this year, according to Russian news agencies.
VTB Capital, the investment bank that organized Russia’s latest Eurobond issues, told Reuters this week that market conditions were favorable for a Eurobond issue.
Speaking about oil, Siluanov said it would not be fair for the Russian government to compensate oil companies for shortfalls that they might face because of the global deal to cut production that Russia and other major crude producers have signed.
Igor Sechin, head of Russian oil giant Rosneft, this week said the company was discussing possible compensation with the government in the event that a global deal to cut supply is extended.
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh and Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Mike Harrison)
