Gazprom considers new issue of Eurobonds

The Gazprom Board of Directors will discuss the possibility of issuing Eurobonds today. The volume of the issue is to reach between $750m and $1bn, a representative of the gas company told RBC. The agenda of the meeting of the Board of Directors also includes some other questions, such as measures to increase the volume of gas production, improvement of the financial planning system of Gazprom, approval of deals to be authorized by the Board of Directors, as well as a plan for the Board's work for the first six months of 2003.

As Gazprom's management declared earlier, the issue of Eurobonds was scheduled for the first quarter of 2003. According to an estimate by Gazprom Executive Board Deputy Chairman Boris Yurlov, in total, the amount of the program of borrowings for 2003 could exceed the earlier announced sum of RUR120bn ($3.77bn) by RUR5bn-10bn ($157.13m-314.27m). The holding company plans to borrow about $6.07bn in 2003, using bonds, syndicated loans and other financial instruments.

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