OREANDA-NEWS. April 04, 2011. FGUP Russian Post placed its series 01 bonds. Offer of bonds by federal state unitary enterprise Russian Post is 6.5 times oversubscribed, reported the press-centre of Raiffeisenbank.   

During book-building, investors submitted 125 bids totaling RUR46.73 bn The offer was oversubscribed more than 6.5 times, a record oversubscription among corporate bonds placed in 2011 so far. Investors bidded for interest rates ranging from 8.00% up to 8.85% p.a. As a result, the first coupon rate was set at 8.25% p.a., substantially below the original marketing expectations of 8.75-9.25% p.a. Thus the 3-year deal on the bonds yields 8.42% p.a.

The issue is arranged by Raiffeisenbank and co-arranged by JSC AKB Svyaz'-Bank.

Series 01 bonds with nominal value RUR7 bn have a 5-year maturity and include a 3-year deal and 6-month coupon periods.

The money attracted by the issue will finance optimization of the company's debt portfolio and will help to cut the costs of debt servicing.

FGUP Russian Post is a 100% state-owned enterprise, the largest federal operator of postal communications and a natural monopoly. The company has a network of 86 branches in all Russian regions, with over 40,000 offices across the country. Alone with the postal services (97% of the  total market), Russian Post is the leading operator of money remittances (46% of all remittances in Russia), provides delivery services for pensions and subsidies, has operations in the sector of retail and mail order sales, offers subscription and delivery of periodicals. In one year, the company delivers 1.5 bn letters, 49 mn parcels and operates almost 134 mn money remittances. Its 2010 proceeds totaled RUR105 bn, EBITDA RUR1.7 bn, net debt/EBITDA was 0.1x.