URALSIB Capital becomes Russia’s first investment bank to hold a conference on the debt market in the crisis environment.
On June 30, 2009, in the Moscow Ritz Carlton Hotel, URALSIB Capital, along with Cbonds information agency, held an international conference entitled Bond Market in Russia: Reload 2009.
Representatives of the Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS), the Finance Ministry, Central Bank, and MICEX participated in the conference, alongside leading bond-market experts from foreign and Russian investment banks, specialists from law firms, top managers of major Russian issuers, and foreign and domestic investors.
Speaking at the conference, URALSIB FC Management Board Chairman Andrei Donskikh stressed that direct dialogue within the professional community, which involves not only investors and issuers, but also regulators and law makers, is a powerful instrument to test the current state of the market and determine the vectors of its further development.
According to the conference participants, the current situation on the Russian bond market allows modest optimism due to a livelier mood on financial markets and state actions.
During the plenary session, FFMS head Vladimir Milovidov said that we are witnessing a bounce on financial markets. In his words, the number of retail investors has increased dramatically, and volumes and liquidity have improved. Finance Ministry deputy head Dmitry Pankin announced the ministry’s intention to hike domestic and external borrowings in 2010. This is particularly important for Russian companies, as the yield point of Russian Sovereign bonds could become the benchmark for other issuers’ placements. Sergei Shvetsov, head of the Central Bank’s financial markets department, spoke of the possibility of extending the recapitalization mechanism fro banks (by adding federal bonds (OFZ) to the capital) into the real sector. The representatives of regulative bodies think that these measures would encourage activity on the Russian bond market.
The participant of the Restructuring and Defaults roundtable discussed the legal mechanisms of bondholder protection during issuers’ debt restructuring. Specifically, they spoke about the legal aspects of debt restructuring, namely the settlement of claims in and out of court. The Interest Rate Dynamics and “New Standards of Bond Issues in the Post-Crisis Environment roundtables were dedicated to the drivers influencing Russian issues’ yields, as well as to the quality of Russian banks’ underwriting services and the sustainability of Russian companies’ credit ratings.
More than 250 delegates took part in the conference, representing Russian and foreign institutional investors, major Russian corporate issuers, state bodies, and leading professional media. More than 50 meetings were organized during the conference, in which 13 Russian companies and 42 institutional investors took part.
Bond conference:
