MOSCOW: Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft is considering offering 2.4 trillion rubles ($66bn) in ruble-denominated bonds to finance its colossal debt in possible response to the weakening ruble and the risk of sanctions over Russia’s seizure of Crimea, a report said yesterday.
The Kommersant business daily said the state-controlled company was “discussing the possibility” of launching the unprecedented high-volume bond offering if the ruble comes under further market pressure, which would make it more expensive to pay back its dollar-denominated debt.
Kommersant said that Rosneft’s total debt amounted to 1.9 trillion rubles ($52.4bn)
at the end of 2013 partly due to
its acquisition of TNK-BP
from BP and a consortium of Russian billionaires, which meant it took on $16.8bn in syndicated loans.
“The company has taken credits from Western banks and the ruble instrument is diversification,” it quoted a source as saying.
The paper that bankers believed that despite the huge size of the offering it would be readily taken up by the markets. AFP
