Gazprom Neft posted a record issue of bonds with a discount

“Gazprom (MoEx: GAZP) Oil ”closed the book for the record issue of discount bonds. The volume of attraction amounted to 60 billion rubles. with a nominal volume of 120 billion rubles. Such bonds rarely appear on the Russian market. At the same time, market participants do not exclude new placements of such papers at the expectations of a key rate, but they are not waiting for a mass exit, since the demand for them is limited mainly by the needs of management companies and pension funds.

On April 28, Gazprom Neft closed the book of applications for two issues of exchange bonds – a discount and with a floating coupon (Floater). Of greater interest among investors was a five -year -old discount bond. According to two Kommersant sources in the debt market, the total demand more than three times exceeded the amount of supply. As a result, the issuer posted the release of 120 billion rubles. and attracted taking into account 50% of the discount of 60 billion rubles. Due to the significant excess of demand over the proposal, the final coupon amounted to 2% per annum against the initial landmark of 2.5% per annum.

In general, discount papers are quite rare for the Russian debt market. Of the about 500 placements of classic bonds that took place in the incomplete four months of this year, there were only two issues of Sberbank for 40 billion rubles discount. by denomination (the volume of attracting 19.4 billion rubles).

The high volume of Gazprom Neft is due to the fact that the issuer was ready to pay a small coupon, which increases the profitability of investments, while the issues of other issuers were without a coupon.

“Gazprom Neft bonds with a 2% coupon reference point and 50% allowed to obtain a profitability of 18.46% per annum,” says Dmitry Gritsevich, manager for the analysis of the banking and financial markets of PSB.

The main target group of discount papers is managing share investment funds and pension funds with a long investment horizon. “Discount papers, in fact, minimize interest payments for the borrower, and the investor levels the risk of reinvesting in case of reducing interest rates on the market,” said Eduard Dzhabarov, head of the Sberbank capital market. “There are not so many long corporate papers in the Russian market, and this is a good issue for investors who are waiting for a decrease in the key rate by the Bank of Russia,” said Ilya Golubov, senior portfolio manager of Renaissance Capital.

Discount bonds are potentially interesting in that they reduce tax expenses for long -term investors. “Individuals get the opportunity to use the tax benefit when owning papers for more than three years, the legal entity delay the moment of payment of income tax before repayment,” said Alexei Tretyakov, general director of the Aricapital Criminal Code. In the case of the sale of paper earlier than three years of ownership, individuals will have an additional personal income tax due to depreciation of the price of such papers.

However, investors showed high interest in two -year fliaters, which were placed in the amount of 42.5 billion rubles. (85% of the volume). The coupon was installed in the size of the key rate + 200 b. p. (against the original landmark 225 b.). By tradition, the key buyers of the floors are banks due to the dependence of the cost of their funding on the key rate of the Bank of Russia. “For pension funds, the KS does not play a significant role, since pension savings and pension reserves for the Criminal Code and NPF are actually worth nothing,” explains Eduard Dzhabarov. The emitter of Fliator is beneficial for the fact that it does not fix the current high rate for the entire period of circulation, saving on interest payments in case of a decrease in the key rate.

The placement of simultaneously bonds with a fixed and floating coupon “comes into fashion”.

Of the “paired” placements that have passed in April, Dmitry Gritskevich noted the issues of the PCB bonds, “new technologies” and “megaphone”. As noted by the head of the debt capital of Alfa-Bank, Artem Starikov, this practice « allows maximizing demand and volume of release due to maximum coverage of investors. »

Market participants do not exclude the fact that in anticipation of the transfer of Bank of Russia to a softer DCP to the market with a proposal of discount bonds, new issuers can reach, although their mass placement is not expected. According to one of the interlocutors of Kommersant, you can expect transactions from large banks and from the company’s real sector. “We do not receive mass requests from issuers for a similar tool, including due to the fact that discount papers are reluctant to buy banks that still occupy 60% of the market,” said Eduard Dzhabarov.

Vitaly Gaidaev