Russia $5.5bn bond establishes benchmark curve

Russia returned to the international bond markets in April for the first time since it defaulted on its domestic debt in August 2008, with one of the largest emerging market issues on record. While the $5.5 billion issue wasn’t quite the biggest from an emerging market sovereign – that distinction belongs to a $7 billion offering from Qatar in November 2009 – it slipped comfortably into second place.

Jonathan Brown is head of European credit syndicate at Barclays Capital, which was one of four b