Russian MinFin transfers 8.9 bln rubles to NSD for coupon payments on 2023, 2043 Eurobonds
MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) - Russia's Finance Ministry has transferred 8.9 billion rubles, or the equivalent of $117.2 million, to the National Settlement Depository (NSD) for coupon payments on sovereign Eurobonds maturing in 2023 and 2043 in line with a presidential decree issued on June 22, 2022, the ministry reported.
The NSD has received the funds, so obligations on servicing the government securities have been met in full, the ministry said.
The June 22 presidential decree approved a new procedure for servicing the foreign sovereign debt under which all payments on Russian sovereign Eurobonds are made in rubles.
At the end of June 2022, the Finance Ministry transferred rubles to the NSD to pay the coupons on three Eurobond issues under this arrangement: dollar-denominated bonds maturing in 2027, 2047 and 2028. In the second half of the year, the ministry transferred payments in rubles to the NSD on dollar-denominated Eurobonds maturing in 2023, 2026, 2043, 2029, 2035, 2030 and 2042, as well as euro-denominated Eurobonds maturing in 2025, 2027 and 2032. In addition, coupons were paid in rubles for a second time on the bond issues maturing in 2027, 2047 and 2028.
The ministry is paying the coupons on the dollar-denominated Russia-2023 and Russia-2043 Eurobonds in rubles for the second time as well.
The Finance Ministry has divided holders of Eurobonds into three groups, depending on the infrastructure through which their ownership rights are recorded.
The first group includes investors who hold their bonds in depo accounts at the NSD or its Russian sub-depositories; payments to these bondholders are made in the usual way and no additional actions are required from them.
The second group consists of investors whose bonds are held in a Russian depository that is itself a depositor of a senior foreign depository. Payments to them will be conveyed by the NSD through Russian depositories, bypassing foreign intermediaries, after the disclosure of information about the number of recorded bonds attributable to their depositors.
The third group consists of investors whose bonds are held directly in foreign depositories. Payments intended for them are transferred to a special "I" type ruble account at the NSD, where the funds are indexed according to the current market exchange rate of the currency in which the bonds are denominated until the actual payment to the bondholder. Investors in this group have to independently contact the NSD or an intermediary organization and provide documentary confirmation of their ownership rights to the Eurobonds.