OREANDA-NEWS. On June 19, 2007 Transneft priced a successful public benchmark bond, issuing USD500m and EUR700m 5-year Notes.  The transaction priced at Mid-Swaps+60bps in both currencies. The proceeds of the issue will be used to finance construction of the Eastern Siberian – Pacific Ocean Pipeline. The joint bookrunners for the transaction were Goldman Sachs International, Citi and UBS Investment Bank. Transneft Finance acted as financial advisor to Transneft, reported the press-centre of Transneft.

The 5-year 144A/Regulation S US$/EUR Notes offering benefited from a well-diversified and high quality orderbook.  For the US$-denominated paper, Fund Managers took 53%, Pension/Insurance 14%, Banks 31% and Other 2%. US investors took 31%, with 43% going to the UK/Ireland, 5% to Germany/Austria, 5% to Asia, 5% to Benelux, 5% to Scandi, 5% to France and 3% to Other. For the EUR-denominated paper, Fund Managers took 57%, Pension/Insurance 29%, Banks 13% and Other 1%. US investors took 3%, with 25% going to the UK/Ireland, 26% to Germany/Austria, 8% to Benelux, 7% to Scandi, 4% to Southern Europe and 3% to Other. Both the Notes and Transneft are rated A2/Stable Outlook by Moody's Investor Service and BBB+/stable outlook by Standard & Poor's.

“As this is the last bond transaction to finance construction of the first phase of ESPO, we were looking to complement our existing US$ investor base with Euro accounts.  We are particularly pleased with the high quality of Euro orders, which allowed the Company to successfully diversify its investor base.” said Sergei Grigoriev, Vice President of Transneft.