Russian Finance Ministry not planning 2nd round of sovereign Eurobond replacement - official

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - The Finance Ministry is not planning a second round of replacements of Russian sovereign Eurobonds due to lack of interest from holders, the director of the ministry's state debt and financial assets department, Denis Mamonov, told journalists on the sidelines of the Cbonds & Smart-Lab conference in Moscow on Saturday.

"After the replacement we have been doing some homework, trying to understand why those that were not replaced were not replaced. So far we have not seen much interest in a second round. In other words, all those who wanted to have all participated in this transaction," Mamonov said.

"Overall, we said from the start that we were not planning a second round, because for us it is associated with a larger number of risks of fraud than the first one, so from the start we tried to replace as many securities as possible, and did so in one go. So far, life shows nothing changed," he said.

The ministry conducted a large-scale replacement of Russian sovereign Eurobonds with local securities in H2 2024. The procedure resulted in the replacement of Russian Eurobonds worth an equivalent of $20.8 billion at par value (including the amortizing structure of Eurobonds maturing in 2030), or 64.2% of the dollar equivalent of the nominal volume of all original issues. Those that were not replaced, with a nominal volume of $11.6 billion (also including amortization), continue to circulate on the secondary market and are being serviced according to the rules established by a presidential decree dated September 9, 2023.