Pipeline to Baltic Heralds $2.5 Billion Market: Russia Credit

Russian companies building a spur of the Moscow-to-Minsk highway and an oil pipeline to the Baltic Sea are sparking a new market for infrastructure bonds that the government expects to reach $2.5 billion a year.

OAO Main Road, a group comprising ZAO Lider, which manages natural-gas exporter OAO Gazprom’s pension funds, and companies such as Portuguese toll operator Brisa-Auto Estradas de Portugal SA, is selling 8 billion rubles ($261 million) of 18-year debt later this month. OAO Western High-Speed Diameter plans to market 10 billion rubles of 20-year, state-guaranteed bonds this month and 15 billion rubles next year for a St. Petersburg highway. Ust-Luga Port on the Baltic Sea plans to sell as much as 10 billion rubles of notes next year.