Gazprom places $1bn in Eurobonds: press

Russia's Gazprom has placed $1bn in 10-year US dollar-denominated Eurobonds, one of the organisers of the issue, Gazprombank, told Moscow-based Vedomosti on July 7.

Demand for the notes exceeded $2.8bn, with Gazprombank president Denis Shukalov noting that Gazprom was able to take advantage of the relative recent stability in markets. Investors from continental Europe accounted for 29% of demand, the US and the UK 28%, Russia 21% and Asia 20%.

More than 180 institutional investors took part in the issue. The bonds were listed at the Euronext Dublin exchange at a coupon rate of 3.5%. With the latest placement, Gazprom now has $13.6bn of Eurobonds in circulation on international markets.

Gazprom recently cut its initial borrowing plan for 2021 by 100bn rubles ($1.4bn) to 411bn rubles. Moving forward, analysts at BCS Global Markets anticipate the company's finances to improve in line with rising gas prices, enabling it to pay down debt.

"We believe that favourable market conditions will allow Gazprom to further improve on its financial performance in 2021, and we expect the company to generate circa $120bn in revenue and post an EBITDA margin of circa 29%," the Moscow-based brokerage said, noting "this should help accelerate the deleveraging process and take the net debt to EBITDA ratio slightly below 1.5x."

Gazprom placed €1bn ($1.2bn) in six-year Eurobonds with a 1.5% coupon rate in February.