Russian MinFin offers to redeem 2022 Eurobonds in rubles at March 31 rate

MOSCOW. March 29 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry has offered to redeem 2022 Eurobonds in rubles at the March 31 exchange rate.

"The Finance Ministry informs about the redemption of 'Russia-2022' external loan bonds with maturity on April 4, 2022," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry will redeem the bonds at 100% of their par value. Holders of the bonds are invited from 4:00 pm on March 29 until 5:00 pm on March 30, to instruct National Settlement Depository to transfer bonds to the Finance Ministry's treasury account at the NSD. Such instruction will be confirmation of the bond-holder's intent to tender the bonds or purchase by the Finance Ministry and of acceptance of the public offer.

Payment for the Eurobonds to be redeemed, including accrued coupon income as of the date of payment, will be made on March 31, 2022 in the Russian currency at the Bank of Russia's official exchange rate on the specified date, the ministry said.

The dollar-denominated 2022 bonds were placed in 2012 with $2 billion in circulation. They were supposed to mature with accrued coupon yield on April 4.

The Finance Ministry did not say separately why it had decided to buy them back for rubles a few days before they mature.

Several large Russian financial groups have been the target of sanctions in recent weeks, including the severest ones, involving disconnection from SWIFT and full asset freezes. The Finance Ministry does not publish the holders of individual issues of sovereign Eurobonds or a breakdown of foreign and Russian investors, and open-source data does not make it possible to judge whether the ruble offer a few days before the maturity of the issue is connected with these circumstances.