On 26 September, under a put option, Center-invest Bank bought back BO-03 and BO-06 series bonds with a par value of RUB1.3bn. With additional demand, 48% of the issue, RUB1.2bn worth of bonds, continued to be traded.

Center-invest Bank announced a coupon rate of 11.5% for next year and an interim put option at par value in January 2015.

This is a difficult time for the bond market. We are seeing very few IPOs and trade on the secondary market is sluggish. Due to the sanctions and the recessionary threat to the Russian economy, investors are wary of lending to the Russian banking sector. Many potential buyers of Center-invest Bank’s bonds themselves require liquidity, and they viewed the bank’s put option as a guaranteed source of funds.

However, even in this challenging environment, Center-invest Bank retained the loyalty of a significant proportion of its investors who had fully appreciated the strengths of its stable banking strategy.