MOSCOW, May 22. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree obliging legal entities that have obligations under Eurobonds to issue replacement bonds before the end of this year, follows from document on the official portal of legal acts.
«Russian legal entities that have obligations related to Eurobonds are obliged to ensure the fulfillment of obligations to holders of Eurobonds, whose rights are taken into account by Russian depositories, by placing bonds before January 1, 2024,» the text says.
It is clarified that the issue of replacement bonds does not apply to organizations that have fulfilled their obligations to Eurobond holders before the decree comes into force.
According to the document, Russian legal entities that have placed replacement bonds can issue these bonds an unlimited number of times. At the same time, their total volume should be similar to the volume of the Eurobond issue, on which obligations are not fulfilled.
These changes are made in the presidential decree of July 5, 2022. The draft document was developed by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank.
In April, Ivan Chebeskov, director of the Financial Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance, noted that this decree provides for mandatory substitution for all issuers that have relevant Eurobonds. However, companies will be able in some cases not to make such a substitution after the relevant decision of the government subcommittee on foreign investment.