The board of billionaire Viktor Rashnikov's Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, or MMK, has approved a plan to sell as much as 50 billion rubles ($1.7 billion) of bonds to refinance debt and fund projects, company spokesman Kirill Golubkov said Tuesday.
The company registered 10 tranches of three-year bonds of 5 billion rubles each in Moscow. Ruble bonds are currently the lowest-rate debt instrument available to the company, Golubkov said.
MMK is seeking to boost crude-steel output by more than 60 percent by 2014. The company invested about $2 billion last year and plans to spend $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion a year through 2014, according to Rashnikov.
(Bloomberg)