29 Oct 2010 13:28

Alrosa places $1 bln in 10-yr Eurobonds at 7.75% p.a.

MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - Alrosa , Russia's diamond monopoly, has placed - at face value - $1 billion worth of ten-year Eurobonds yielding 7.75% per annum, a company release says.

VTB Capital, which was one of the issue organizers, said in a press release that the placement involved investors from the United States (30%), Continental Europe (28%), Britain (20%), and Russia (16%). The bulk of demand for the eurobonds was among managing companies (60%) and banks (20%).

"Demand for the securities was almost twice the offer, and this made it possible to place the issue in the framework of the initial pricing guidance, despite the worsening of market conditions," the release quotes head of the investment bank's debt-capital market division Andrei Solovyev as saying.

All the proceeds will be put into refinancing current Alrosa debt. The company said that with this placement it had completed the restructuring of its credit portfolio, converting short-term debts in to long-term debts.

In the implementation of an Alrosa program for debt restructuring, the company has placed 26 billion rubles worth of ruble-denominated bonds this year.