Wednesday, April 26, in the offices of Sberbank and VTB24 started selling Federal loan bonds (OFZ) for individuals. “National” bonds are issued for a period of three years, the volume of the first issue amounted to 15 billion rubles. Given that the nominal value of a paper is equal to 1 thousand rubles, investors are now available to 15 million new OFZ. As reported the press service of Sberbank, the total number of clients who submitted applications for the bonds made at the end of the day about 1 thousand Total volume of bids amounted to 912 million rubles at par, the average size of application — 0.9 million RUB VTB24 was taken about 500 applications worth about 700 million rubles the Average size of the bid was 1.4 million rubles, follows from the comment of the press service of the Bank.
The minimum amount of investment in the “people” of the bond is 30 thousand rubles., maximum — 15 million rbl. the Coupon on OFZ for the population will be paid every six months, and its size will increase with each payment to motivate investors to hold purchased securities to maturity. The first coupon rate will be 7.5%, second 8%, third is 8.5%, the fourth 9% fifth 10% and the latter 10.5%. Thus, the average yield of “national” bonds for three years will be 8.5% per annum.
However, the final yield will be less because of the Commission that an investor must pay the Bank when buying OFZs. Its size depends on the amount invested in the securities: if a customer buys of “national” bonds of less than 50 thousand rubles, the Commission will be 1.5% of the purchase amount. If attachments will be more — from 50 thousand to 300 thousand rubles, the Commission will be reduced to 1%, and if more than 300 thousand rubles, the Bank will take 0.5%. Thus, when purchasing securities on 30 thousand rubles and a fee of 1.5% real rate of return “national” BFL will be 0.13 percentage points below the promised — of 8.37% per annum, and the purchase of 50 thousand rubles and a fee of 1%, it will amount of 8.42% per annum. It is most advantageous to buy these securities in large amounts: a fee of 0.5% of their yield will be at the level of 8.46% per annum. In this case the employee VTB24 in office on Myasnitskaya, 35, told the correspondent that the purchase of the bonds will have to pay 150 rubles for the transaction (in the savings Bank on such payments was not reported).
However, the press service of VTB24 claim: “All of the Commission established by the Ministry of Finance and constitute 0.5 to 1.5% depending on the amount by which the clients issue bonds”.
From materials of the Ministry of Finance on the issue, it follows that the greatest benefit will be the investor who bought “national” bonds on the first day of treatment today. In practice, this is impossible unless you have an open brokerage account. Only one procedure is open it takes one day in the savings Bank three days in VTB24. But if an investor wants to purchase paper later, for example after a month, the purchase amount will be added to the accumulated coupon income accrued during those 30 days. For example, if a customer comes to the Bank branch on may 26, with the intention to buy paper for 30 thousand rubles, he will have to pay for them in addition to a fee of RUB 382 of the accrued coupon yield. However, as explained in the savings Bank, if the buyer purchases the bonds through six months, immediately after payment of the first coupon, he would not have to pay the Bank the accrued coupon income, but he doesn’t get the last coupon of 10.5%.
Photo: Dmitry Serebryakov / TASS
To sell “national” bonds as usual will not work: the secondary market for these securities will not. The only option is to sell OFZ bonds will be delivered to the agent, in which they were purchased. However, for early sale the Bank will take the same Commission as when buying, from 0.5 to 1.5% depending on amount. So, if the holder of the securities on 30 thousand rbl. will decide to get rid of them a year after purchase, he will receive a yield to maturity of 4.76% per annum. It is also worth noting that depending on the dynamics of demand the cost of one “national” bonds will, from time to time be revised by the banks. Sberbank and VTB24 assured that the investor will be able to sell OFZ bonds at the purchase price.
According to the experts interviewed , starting bidding national bonds, the Finance Ministry was guided by the objective to create a very profitable tool. Rather, he sought to accustom the Russians to ensure that banking deposits are not the only way to store tools. “This is a transitional stage between the deposits and the stock market”, — emphasizes the analyst of “ALOR Broker” Sergei Korolev.
Instead of Deposit
Experts agree that the “national” bonds may have a demand for those who keep money in Bank deposits. Principal analyst debt markets Bq Region Alexander Ermak noted that the yield on three-year bonds, even with the commissions exceed the rates for deposits: in April the average rate on three-year deposits with the 15 largest banks % to 5.89% per annum. The yield of ruble deposits in the coming months will continue to decline, says portfolio Manager UK “Kapital” Dmitry Postolenko.
From the point of view of capital protection OFZ for the population is comparable with the classical sovereign bonds, and Bank deposits that are insured by the Deposit insurance Agency, says managing Director of BKS Oleg Chikhladze. “By and large guarantees ASV is also the guarantee of the state,” he says. According to the financier, reason to expect the default state, no, because the Federal budget and the balance of payments is now in good condition. In addition, the volume of the debut release is only 15 billion rubles., and it is not so much to repayment could cause problems, he said.
Differences from BFL
But for private investors who are already working with financial markets, bonds are less interesting, according to financial experts. In General, the major advantages of these securities over conventional BFL no, says the head of debt markets at Communication-Bank Alexander Nikonov. “The differences are largely technical, he explains. — To buy the usual OFZ, the investor should ask the broker, open an account there and buy on the exchange, and to purchase “folk” BFL enough to apply to the agent banks”.
However, the Commission’s usual when buying OFZ bonds through a broker on lower than when you purchase a “national” banks OFZ. For the purchase and sale of the bonds brokers take 0,04–0,1% of the transaction amount, says Korolev from “ALOR Broker”. In addition, investors pay a Commission to the Depositary, about 100 rubles a month, if during this period there were at least one operation. Some brokers also set the threshold (on the average 50 thousand rubles.) and take a Commission (about 200 rubles), if the amount of the assets does not reach the specified level, says Korolev.
The yield on OFZs with fixed coupon yield slightly below the “national” government bonds, including the fee for the purchase: OFZ 26214 maturing in April 2020 will bring the investor of 7.96%. But the bond with floating coupon already offer a higher yield: for example, 29011 OFZ maturing in January 2020, it is of 9.59%.
The main drawback of “people” BFL experts call low liquidity compared to the classic bonds. “Normal OFZ bonds the investor may sell at any time and additionally receive the profit from the growth in the market value of paper,” reminiscent of Postolenko of UK Capital. Given that country some of those who are willing to invest a large sum in bonds and forget about it for three years, this is a significant drawback, the expert adds. After all, if the owner of the “folk” BFL urgently need some money for some need, he will not be able to take her out of securities without loss.
Advice to investors
With all that said, the “people’s” government bonds are perfect for novice investors who want to invest in a low risk instrument, the first Vice-President of Asian-Pacific Bank Vyacheslav Andryushkin. Ermak, BK “Region” advises to invest in government bonds more than 300 thousand rubles., to minimize losses due to Bank commissions.
Korolev from “ALOR Broker” recommends to wait and not to buy “popular” BFL immediately, despite the fact that in this case the investor will have to pay the accumulated coupon income. The fact is that, if the demand for “national” bonds would not be very high, the Bank customers will be able to buy them cheaper than face value. The secondary market price of securities would be determined in the course of trading, but in the case of “folk” BFL price (%of par) will be set by the Ministry of Finance depending on the demand, he said.
The asset Manager IC “Zerich capital Management” Alexander Baulin, in turn, is convinced that investors prefer a classic government bonds on the Moscow exchange. He recommends the OFZ 24018 maturing at the end of December 2017 and a variable coupon linked to the refinancing rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and the issue 26210 maturing in late 2019. General guidelines — choose to buy bonds with large coupon and the price above par, to avoid paying tax on exchange difference at maturity at face value.
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