China is preparing to reopen its domestic bond market to major Russian energy companies, in a shift of policy that reflects deepening diplomatic and economic ties between Beijing and Moscow.
Two people familiar with the matter said senior Chinese financial regulators told top Russian energy executives at a late August meeting in China’s southern city of Guangzhou that they would support their companies’ plans to sell renminbi “panda bonds”.
Such borrowing would be the first Russian corporate fundraising in mainland China since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the first Russian debt sold on China’s public onshore market since state aluminium producer Rusal’s panda bond issue raised a total Rmb1.5bn in 2017.