Gazprom in New Bond Issue
Gazprom is raising 500 million euros ($710 million) from 5 1/2-year notes, paying a coupon of about 8.75 percent, according to bankers with direct knowledge of the transaction.
It will also sell five-year bonds in dollars that may be priced to yield about 8.5 percent, said the bankers, who declined to be identified before the deal is completed. The notes will be issued by Gaz Capital. 
(Bloomberg)

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 Onexim Buys 50% of RBC
Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group said Tuesday that it had agreed to buy 51 percent of business news provider RBC for $80 million.
Onexim said in a statement that it and RBC would propose to RBC’s creditors to accept 20 percent of outstanding debt in cash, write down some debt and restructure the remaining debt in new instruments. The takeover must be agreed on with creditors. 
(Bloomberg)

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Norilsk’s Big Dividend?
Norilsk Nickel may pay a “generous” first-half dividend, exceeding the company’s policy of returning 20 percent to 25 percent of net income to investors, UniCredit said Tuesday.
Norilsk forecasts earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of “slightly” more than $3 billion, Marat Gabitov, an analyst at UniCredit, cited Norilsk management as saying.
(Bloomberg)

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Drought Estimates Raised
The Agriculture Ministry raised its estimate on Tuesday for how much of the spring crop was killed by drought by 3 percent after adding a seventh region to a survey.
Drought wiped out 3.3 million hectares of spring crop, compared with a July 14 estimate of 3.2 million hectares in six regions, the ministry said. An emergency situation has been declared in the Samara, Orenburg, Volgograd, Saratov and Ulyanovsk regions, as well as in the Bashkortostan and Tatarstan republics.
(Bloomberg)

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Metalloinvest Seeks Backing
Metalloinvest asked the government to guarantee its loans, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing unidentified officials at the Economic Development Ministry.
The company had $5.9 billion of debt at the end of the first quarter, including $1.4 billion payable within a year, Interfax said. Yulia Mazanova, a spokeswoman for Metalloinvest, declined to comment.
(Bloomberg)

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Inter Sees $124M Profit
Russian electricity trader Inter RAO made a net profit of 87 million euros ($124 million) in 2008, compared to a net loss in the previous year, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Inter RAO also said it posted a 31 percent jump in revenues last year to 1.67 billion euros.
(Reuters)

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Guarantees May Not Help
The government’s loan guarantees to companies may not be accepted by banks, as they only cover half of the loan amount, exposing lenders to “significant credit risk,” Fitch Ratings said in a research note Tuesday.
“Creditors may be deterred by potential legal and operating challenges as the new mechanism has never been tested in practice,” the ratings agency said.
(Bloomberg)

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Putin to Meet With Bankers
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet the country’s top bankers Wednesday to discuss the banking sector’s woes, Putin’s spokesman said.
“Issues of lending to the ‘real’ sector of the economy and banking sector stability on the whole will be discussed,” Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
(Reuters)

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Glavstroi Loses Lawsuit
Glavstroi on Tuesday lost a 2.1 billion ruble ($66.08 million) lawsuit filed by a major creditor, state bank VTB.
A Glavstroi unit, Glavmosstroi, is facing three bankruptcy suits, one filed by another major Russian bank, privately controlled Alfa Bank.
(Reuters)

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 VTB Approves Stock Issue
VTB’s supervisory board approved a 90 billion ruble ($2.9 billion) stock issue, the bank said in a statement Tuesday.
The bank will issue 9 trillion shares at an offering price of 0.01 rubles per share, the statement said.
(MT)

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 For the Record
Pharmacy Chain 36.6, Russia’s largest drugstore chain, may offer shares in a property fund as bond collateral as it seeks to restructure debt, Vedomosti reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified company representative. 
(Bloomberg)

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said pensions would rise by 45.9 percent next year to average more than 8,000 rubles ($257) a month, RIA-Novosti reported Tuesday.
(Bloomberg)