OREANDA-NEWS. December 30, 2010. On 23 December 2010, the debut placement of government bonds series 01 with a total face value of 7 bn rubles of the Republic of Belarus was accomplished.

The bonds were placed at the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) via public subscription at a fixed price and a fixed coupon rate for the first coupon period. Along with Alfa-Bank, Sberbank and Gazprombank served as co-arrangers of the issue.

The bonds’ maturity period is two years with a coupon rate at 8.7% per annum within the marketing range of 8.5 — 8.75% per annum.

Since the bid book opening on December 16, the total demand has exceeded 8 bn rubles, making it a great success especially in the complicated pre-new year market situation and in view of the novelty of the product.

Commenting on the placement results, Simon Vine, Director for dealing in debt securities and derivatives at Alfa-Bank, said: "The placement of sovereign ruble bonds of the Republic of Belarus has become the first deal of that kind ever in history of the Russian financial market, thus giving the green light to foreign borrowers entering Russian capital markets from a practical point of view. I am confident that in the coming year we will witness more deals like that, and it is just the beginning. Alfa-Bank is satisfied with the successful start of this historical project, underlining our striving for leadership in working with new products aimed at further development of the Russian market of debt instruments".

Founded in 1990, Alfa-Bank is a full-service bank operating in all sectors of the financial market, including retail and corporate lending, investment banking, trade finance and asset management.

Alfa-Bank is Russia’s largest private bank in terms of total assets, total equity and customer accounts.

According to its audited IFRS financial statements for the full year 2009, Alfa-Bank Russia, which comprises OJSC Alfa-Bank as well as subsidiary banks and financial companies, had total assets of USD 21.6 bln, a gross loan portfolio of USD 15.0 bln, and total equity of USD 2.7 bln. Net profit after tax attributable to the equity shareholders of Alfa-Bank Russia was USD 88 mln.

The bank’s corporate and retail client base has grown considerably over the last several years: as of April 1, 2010 Alfa-Bank Russia had served over 40,000 corporate and 4.1 mln retail customers, while the branch network had grown to 326 offices across Russia and abroad, including a subsidiary bank in the Netherlands and financial subsidiaries in the United States and the UK.