Rosneft closed the order book for the settlement of the second issuance of yuan-denominated 10-year bonds. newspaper reports vedomosti.
It was stated that the total volume of the bonds was 15 billion yuan, while the coupon interest rate was determined as 3.5%. The collection of applications took place on March 15. The technical placement will take place on March 20.
According to Ronald Smith, senior analyst at BCS World Investments, the settlement was the largest in ruble terms among corporate bond issues in the Russian market in its entire history. The previous record was also held by Rosneft: on September 15, 2022, the company issued its first bond issuance in the amount of 15 billion yuan – 128.5 billion rubles. At the exchange rate of the Central Bank on the day of placement, corresponding to 163.95 billion rubles. current placement.
As Sergey Suverov, investment strategist at Arıkapital Management Company, has pointed out that since the end of last year, there has been a general upward trend in yuan borrowing interest rates in the domestic market. He reminded that since August 2022, 11 Russian companies have issued yuan-denominated bonds totaling 59 billion rubles on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
Rosneft can now be called the main issuer of bonds in yuan in the domestic market – considering the second issue, the oil company accounts for about 40% of the volume of settlements in Chinese currency, ”said the expert.
According to him, the high demand for Rosneft bonds and the relatively low coupon rate are explained by the high quality of the borrower. “Existing long-term contracts completely eliminate any currency risk for Rosneft,” said Suverov.
Rosneft is an important driver of trade with China. The company occupies a leading position among oil exporters to China, supplying 7% of the country’s total raw material demand each year. At the beginning of 2022, the company reported that the oil company’s total supply to China since 2005 was 442 million tons of oil.
In turn, Finam FG analyst Alexei Kovalev emphasized that Rosneft’s RMB bonds are attractive to investors. According to him, the first issuance of such bonds in September in the absence of the yuan-denominated OFZ is “the highest rated paper in the segment”. He reminded that Rosneft bonds are one of the leaders in terms of average daily turnover and the number of transactions in the yuan segment on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
Rosneft announced that the current yield of the yuan bond issuance in September is around 3.6 percent.