LONDON and MOSCOW, February 21, 2013: Vnesheconombank (VEB), the Russian state development bank, today closed a EUR 1.5 billion offering of Eurobonds. The offering was structured as a EUR 1 billion tranche of 5-year bonds and a EUR 500 million tranche of 10-year bonds. Each tranche of bonds was issued by VEB Finance plc, an Irish special purpose vehicle, for the purpose of funding a loan to VEB. The proceeds of the offering will be used by VEB for general corporate purposes.
Barclays, Commerzbank, ING and Societe Generale acted as joint lead managers of the offering.
VEB is a Russian state corporation that is one of the key institutions for the implementation of the Russian government's investment and development policy. In addition to its capacity as the principal development bank of Russia, VEB also acts as an agent of the Russian government for managing state debts and certain pension funds and acts as a universal depositary in Russia.
Morgan Lewis served as English and Russian legal adviser to VEB on the offering. The Morgan Lewis team was led by Business and Finance partner Carter Brod, who was joined by a London-Moscow team that included Business and Finance partners Brian Zimbler and Yulia Cherkassova and associates Vinay Varma, Liya Grishaeva, Valentina Semenikhina and Ekaterina Khitrova.
Mr. Brod commented, "VEB is an important institution for the Russian economy, and we are delighted to have advised it on this major funding transaction. This offering is significant in that it is VEB's first-ever Eurobond offering denominated in Euros and is of benchmark size."