Cash-strapped Belarus has successfully placed $1.4bn dual-tranche US-dollar-denominated Eurobonds with five-year and ten-year maturities, Reuters reported on June 22, citing unnamed financal sources.

The yield of the five-year tranche raising $800mn was 7.125%, with the ten-year tranche raising $600mn at 7.625%. Aggregate investor demand for the securities exceeded $3.1bn. Belarus has mandated Citigroup and Raiffeisen Bank International for investor meetings in the US and Europe.

Experts believe that the move of the Belarusian authorities is a clear indication that Minsk’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a new  $3bn support package have failed.

According to repeated IMF demands, a lender-supported programme requires the Belarusian leadership to show “strong commitment at the highest level to consistent macroeconomic policies and deep, market-oriented reforms”. At the same time, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko rejects implementing liberal economic reforms to secure a loan agreement.

In late 2016, Prime Minister Andrei Kobiakov said Belarus is considering $800mn issue of Eurobonds as “the most suitable size”.

“Of course, we are interested in long-term borrowing. It would be good if its term were seven years,” Kobiakov told Reuters.

Minsk also intends to refinance the country’s debt with additional funding from Russia, recently negotiating a new $700mn loan with Moscow. Belarus also relies on further tranches of a $2bn stand-by loan agreed with the Russia-led Eurasian Fund for Stabilisation and Development (EFSD) in 2016. In April, Belarus received a new $300mn tranche from the EFSD.

In late April, Fitch Ratings said the resumption of payments from the EFSD and the settlement of the energy dispute between Minsk and Moscow will reduce but not completely eliminate uncertainty over the ability of Belarus to fulfil its 2017 financing plan. The plan envisages an increase in non-debt foreign currency revenues to $1.8bn in 2017 from $1.2bn last year, and EFSD disbursements worth $1bn, according to the rating agency.