KAZAN, May 15. /TASS/. The first issue of Islamic sukuk bonds in Russia was announced at the 17th International Economic Forum "Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum," the forum’s organizers reported.
"VEB.RF and Alabuga Development LLC, pursuant to the agreement on cooperation and collaboration in developing partnership financing between the government of the Republic of Tatarstan and VEB.RF dated May 16, 2025, signed a loan agreement under partnership financing terms for an amount exceeding 3.5 billion rubles ($47.9 mln) with a repayment term of two years. The transaction is being implemented under a limited mudarabah format," the forum’s organizers said in a statement.
The transaction will result in the construction of a production complex at the Northern Gate Industrial Park in Tatarstan. Funds for the project will be raised by the end of the second quarter of 2026 through the placement of VEB.RF's debut partnership financing bond issue.
According to VEB.RF Deputy Chairman Konstantin Vyshkovsky, the bond issue was organized by Gazprombank (as the coordinating bank) and Sberbank.
"We are interested in expanding our range of debt instruments, allowing us to attract new categories of investors willing to participate in project implementation with us in Russia, sharing both the risks and the economic results. We expect that, in the long term, such instruments will attract investors from friendly jurisdictions interested in participating in high-quality Russian projects structured in accordance with the principles of partnership financing," Vyshkovsky was quoted in the statement as saying.
According to Roman Amirkhanov, Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan and Head of the Department of Socioeconomic Monitoring, the pilot project is of strategic importance.
"Its key value lies in the opportunity to test a fully-fledged infrastructure for issuing and structuring sukuk within the Russian legal framework," he was quoted as saying in the statement.
Aleksey Rudenko, Executive Vice President and Head of the Debt Market Instruments Department at Gazprombank, announced that the sukuk issue will be placed as exchange-traded bonds on the Moscow Exchange. They will be available to all categories of investors, including retail investors.
"Through joint efforts, we have created an instrument that, in our view, will be accessible and understandable to a wide audience, primarily private investors, whom we see as our target group," Rudenko said as quoted in the press release.
In turn, First Vice President of Gazprobank Denis Shulakov estimated the potential of the sukuk market in Russia at between 700 billion and 2-3 trillion rubles ($9.5 bln and $27.3-40.9 bln)
The 17th International Economic Forum "Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum" is taking place from May 12 to 17 in Kazan. TASS is the forum's general information partner.