Russia's Rosatom is close to placing bonds in Chinese market, executive says

Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has made significant progress towards placing bonds in the Chinese market, deputy director general Ilya Rebrov was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Rebrov said a placement was a matter of months or weeks, Interfax news agency reported.

He said Rosatom had managed to obtain a rating from a Chinese rating agency and take decisions that had moved it closer to being able to raise debt in China, despite "all the pressure Russian industry is experiencing".

Rosatom's generation unit Atomenergoprom received an "AAA" rating from China's Dagong Global Capital Rating agency in April, along with a "stable" outlook.

Rebrov added that Rosatom had been actively seeking new sources of finance this year.

Reuters reported earlier this month that top Russian companies including Rosatom and Gazprom GAZP were exploring sales of so-called "panda" bonds - debt issues by non-Chinese entities that are denominated in yuan.

Only one Russian company - metals giant Rusal - had ever issued panda bonds prior to 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, geopolitical tensions and the closure of Western capital markets to Russian firms have boosted the Chinese market's appeal.

Rosatom is not under U.S. sanctions, although its top management has been sanctioned.