Russia to refinance offshore debt under new law-sources
MOSCOW, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The Russian government is quickly preparing amendments to draft anti-crisis legislation to allow state banks to refinance corporate debt secured via offshore firms, parliament sources said on Tuesday.
The draft law, to be considered in the second reading by the Duma lower house of parliament on Wednesday, currently says that state-owned VEB bank can provide Russian companies with loans to refinance foreign credits taken before Sept. 25 2008 with total worth of up to $50 billion.
"The companies which took credits indirectly, via offshore firms, do not fall under this anti-crisis legislation... To solve this problem there will be a meeting (in the Kremlin) and amendments will be prepared by this afternoon or tomorrow morning," said one of the sources.
The source cited Basic Element, the holding company of Russia's richest man Oleg Deripaska, as an example of such companies.
The press officer of the Duma's financial markets committee declined to comment. (Reporting by Dmitry Sergeyev, writing by Tanya Mosolova, editing by Toni Vorobyova)
