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Russia's VTB Bank Offers to Buy Back Around $2 Billion Eurobonds

Peruanec / Wikicommons

Russia's second-largest bank VTB on Thursday offered investors to buy back Eurobonds worth around $2 billion, saying the move was attractive given current yields on the bonds.

The bank said in a regulatory filing on the Luxembourg stock exchange that it was offering to buy back bonds denominated in U.S. dollars maturing in April 2017, February 2018 and May 2018 in an amount of up to $750 million.

It also said it would buy any and all notes offered for purchase from four other issues, two denominated in Swiss francs and due in December 2016 and May 2018, one in Australian dollars due in December 2017 and one in U.S. dollars due in June 2035.

The amount of those notes outstanding equates to around $1.3 billion.

"Buying back Eurobonds from the market represents an attractive investment opportunity for us," the bank's press service said in a statement.

"We took the decision to send a portion of our free liquidity to buying back our own short-term paper."

VTB said its offer expires at 15:00 GMT on July 23. The results will be published on July 24.

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