BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
25/03/2010
Belarus picks leads for maiden Eurobond
By Andrey Makhovsky
MINSK, March 25 (Reuters) - Belarus has picked BNP Paribas , Deutsche Bank, RBS and Russia's biggest lender Sberbank to organise its debut Eurobond issue, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.
The former Soviet republic plans to tap the international market for at least $500 million this year to boost finances dented by falling demand in key export markets of Russia and Europe, and to open up Eurobonds for its companies and banks.
Minsk pressed on with the issue plans on Thursday despite securing from China the promise of a $1 billion loan on favourable terms the previous day.
'From today, the work on preparing the debut issue has officially started,' Pavel Ladik, an adviser to the Finance Minister, told Reuters.
'The Eurobond issue is planned for this year. The decision on the actual placement of the paper will depend on the situation in the market.'
Sberbank, which last year bought BPS Bank from the government of
Belarus and has promised hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to Belarussian companies , was widely expected to be among the organisers.
Belarus has chosen different banks to organise its issue from those picked by Russia, which plans to return to the Eurobond market after over a decade's absence this year and is due to hold a road show in New York next month.
Belarus' long-term foreign currency debt is rated B+ by Standard & Poor's-- four notches into speculative grade territory. Russia, in contrast, is an investment grade BBB.
(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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