Executive says ruble weakening eases debt burden of Rosneft

MOSCOW, May 15 (PRIME) -- Russian oil major Rosneft is the largest beneficiary of the current weakening of the ruble because it will ease its debt burden, Andrei Baranov, director of the company’s department for investor relations, said in a conference call on Friday.

“Regarding…the impact of ruble’s devaluation on decrease of the debt, I would like to begin my answer with a fact that the company has net debt and total debt in the most balanced state -- 50% of our combined debt is in foreign currency, and 50% is in rubles. We paid higher interest by having 50% in a softer currency, but it helped us in the first quarter when the ruble sum of the debt calculated in the U.S. dollars reduced by more than 20% when the ruble weakened to 77 rubles (per U.S. dollar),” he said.

“If we calculate it, it will exceed $4 billion, it is less than $5 billion…Among all Russia’s largest exporters…Rosneft has the highest share of ruble debt. This is why we are the largest beneficiaries of the current weakening of the ruble.”

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