OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2007. Baltika Breweries paid off its first bond issue, the press service of the company reports. Bonds with a total nominal value of 1 billion rubles were initially placed on October 26, 2004. The period when the bonds were in circulation came to 3 years (1,120 days). Under the terms of the bond issue, there was provision for payment of seven coupons. The first coupon period was equal to 28 days and the size of the first coupon amounted to 4.00% annual interest. All the following coupon periods were semiannual with a coupon rate of 8.75% interest per annum.

The primary (technical) placement of the bonds took place under closed subscription in favour of Raiffeisenbank Austria, CJSC.

The secondary placement of bonds among investors took place on November 23, 2004 on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX). This was the first time that the Company distributed bonds among investors on the Russian bond market at the issuer’s discretion — by allocation - a widely practiced principle in Western financial markets. The unique structure of the loan made it possible to relieve investors of the risk of change in interest rates between the period of the initial placement and registration of the results of the issue: the securities were offered to investors only on the secondary market. As a result, the Company received a better price for the placement and ensured that the loan enjoyed high liquidity and wide distribution. The average weighted income from the secondary placement amounted to 8.99% annual interest to payback. The general demand for the Baltika Breweries bonds exceeded the size of the issue by more than three times and amounted to 3.1 billion rubles.

The funds received from placement of the Bonds were used by the Company to finance its activities and implement investment projects.

The organiser and underwriter of the bond issue was Raiffeisenbank Austria, CJSC. The co-organisers of the issue were: ABN AMRO Bank, Evrofinans-Mosnarbank, Promyshlenno-stroitelny Bank of St Petersburg (since July 2007, Bank VTB Severo-Zapad, OJSC), and Troyka Dialog investment company.

Baltika Breweries is the largest FMCG producer in Russia. Ever since 1996, it has been the leader on the Russian beer market. The Baltika brand holds second place in terms of sales within Europe. The Company has 11 breweries across all of Russia and a wide portfolio of brands. It has around 12, 000 employees.