Eurotorg successfully places bonds on Moscow Exchange

Eurotorg LLC (“Eurotorg” or the “Company”), the largest food retailer in Belarus, has successfully placed a RUB 5 billion issue of five-year unsecured bonds.

As a result of the bookbuilding the quarterly coupon was set at an annualized 9.45%. The terms of the bonds include amortisation of 25% of the face value as of the date of the 14th, 16th, 18th and 20th coupon payments. Expert RA, the leading Russian ratings agency, has assigned the issue a rating according to the Russian Federation scale of “ruA-“ with a stable outlook.

The issue drew significant investor interest, with total bids of around RUB 8.6 billion from an investor pool that included individual investors, Russian banks, international investors, and investment and management companies. Retail investors placed more than RUB 2.5 billion of bids in total.

Andrey Zubkov, Eurotorg CEO, said: “We are pleased that our continuous efforts have established Eurotorg as a well-known name for Russian and international investors. Strong interest in the issue was reflected in the reduction of the coupon by 1.5 pp compared with the Company’s first placement on Moscow Exchange. This underscores the strengthening of Eurotorg’s reputation as a high-quality corporate issuer from Belarus with a strong credit history. By consistently setting the standard for Belarusian issuers in international capital markets, we not only attract foreign investment into the country, but also hope that our success will be a positive signal for other Belarusian companies coming to market in future.

“Issuing bonds on Moscow Exchange diversifies our sources of long-term unsecured financing and improves the currency structure of our debt portfolio, which is particularly important amid current market volatility. Funds from the placement will be used to refinance existing debt. This placement forms part of our multi-currency bond programme registered on Moscow Exchange, which enables us to tap markets quickly when market conditions are favourable.”

Denis Shulakov, Senior Vice-President at Gazprombank, commented: “For the second year in a row, Eurotorg has confidently tapped the Russian market, increasing the total volume of bonds in circulation to RUB 15 billion and forming a liquid secondary curve of the Company's securities on the market. This placement marked Eurotorg’s transition from a debut issuer to a regular borrower on the Russian market with its own open limit base among a wide range of investors, including active participation by individual investors.”

Aleksei Kuprijanov, Head of Debt Capital Markets at BCS Global Markets, said: “Eurotorg is a high-quality issuer that illustrates the openness of the Russian debt market to companies from the CIS countries. This placement collected a record number of bids from individual investors, at more than 50% of the placed volume. The issue attracted a significant oversubscription of more than 1.7 times, once again underscoring the attractiveness of Eurotorg’s ruble bonds to a wide range of investors.”

Stepan Ermolkin, Head of Debt Capital Markets at MKB, said: “This is Eurotorg’s third transaction on the Russian debt capital market, and once again attracted strong interest from a wide range of investors. We are confident that Eurotorg’s high credit quality, as well as impeccable public history, will enable the Company to expand its range of debt instruments, while helping to reduce the cost of future borrowing.”

The organisers of the issue were BCS GM, VTB Capital, Gazprombank, Credit Bank of Moscow and Sovcombank. The placement agent was Gazprombank. LECAP acted as legal adviser. LCPIS has been appointed as the bondholders’ representative in accordance with Russian law.