OREANDA-NEWS. December 28, 2009. The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation announced the approval by the Government of the Russian Federation of a list of 22 leading international and Russian investment banks that can be potentially engaged by MinFin of Russia to act as lead managers of external bond issuances of the Russian Federation.

The Government of the Russian Federation authorized MinFin of Russia to select lead managers of future external bond issuances of the Russian Federation from the banks included in the list below:

1.                  Bank of America Merrill Lynch

2.                  Barclays Capital

3.                  BNP Paribas Group

4.                  Calyon

5.                  Citi

6.                  Credit Suisse

7.                  Daiwa Securities Group Inc

8.                  Deutsche Bank AG

9.                  Goldman Sachs

10.              HSBC

11.              ING Group NV

12.              JP Morgan

13.              Morgan Stanley

14.              Nomura Holdings Inc

15.              Renaissance Capital

16.              Royal Bank of Scotland

17.              Sberbank

18.              Societe Generale

19.              Troika Dialog

20.              UBS

21.              UniCredit Group

22.              VTB Capital, PLC

The above list approved by the Government of the Russian Federation includes leading international and Russian investment banks, whose share for the last two years represents the largest portion of the volume of emerging market sovereign bond issuances, as well as Russian corporate borrowers’ Eurobonds.

MinFin of Russia intends to issue a request shortly asking banks included in the list to submit their proposals to perform the above functions.

The Government of the Russian Federation is giving consideration to the possibility of accessing the international capital markets in the years to come. No decision has been taken with respect to volumes, timing and other financial terms of the upcoming placements.