OREANDA-NEWS. MegaFon's RUB 20bn local bonds placement has been named “Best Rouble Bond” of 2013 in EMEA Finance's Achievement Awards. London-based EMEA Finance has been recognising the best capital markets transactions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 2008.

MegaFon's 5-year, RUB 20 bn transaction, completed in March 2013, attracted considerable investor interest. It concluded a RUB 30bn bonds issuance programme marking the company's return to the public debt capital market. The deal was led by Raiffeisenbank, VTB Capital and Sberbank CIB.

“We appreciate the recognition of our efforts by EMEA Finance magazine for the second year in a row which definitely wouldn't have happened without interest and support of the whole investment community. We believe that despite the turbulent markets environment the ñompany's strong fundamentals as well as sustainable financial performance will allow us to further win the confidence of investors,” said Gevork Vermishyan, MegaFon's Chief Financial Officer.

“Last year was a record period for bond issuances from Russia, and the quantity and quality of corporate names coming to the local and international markets couldn't be ignored by investors,” said Tim Burke, Editor of EMEA Finance. “In this busy market, MegaFon impressed us with its RUB20bn transaction, and the pricing shows that investors were happy to see the company again. Given how active CEEMEA companies in the telecoms sector were in 2013, the success of this issuance is worthy of recognition.”

MegaFon's November 2012 Initial Public Offering on the Moscow Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange was honored by EMEA Finance as “Best IPO in EMEA” in its Achievement Awards 2012.