Russian State Corporation Rusnano has defaulted on a bond issue with a state guarantee, as reported by Interfax, citing a company statement.
On March 31, Rusnano was supposed to pay 1 billion rubles in coupon payments to bondholders, but the investors did not receive the money. The company assured that the payment would be made "within 10 days," attributing the delay to the development of a "technical mechanism for coupon payment." The company did not clarify what this mechanism entails and why it is required now. The technical default concerns Rusnano's 08 series bonds, totaling 13.4 billion rubles, maturing in 2027.
In November 2021, Rusnano was already on the verge of defaulting on its debt, but the state intervened to rescue the company. Two years later, the state corporation announced that it was nearing bankruptcy due to a lack of funds to service its debt, which at the time had reached almost 100 billion rubles.
In May 2024, Rusnano warned that it only had enough funds to cover short-term debt (due in the next year) and that it faced further problems. The debt, including servicing costs, may "not be sufficiently secured by assets."
Founded in 2007 to develop innovations and promising to create a trillion-ruble nanotechnology industry in Russia within 10 years, Rusnano reported a net loss of over 100 billion rubles between 2010 and 2021. As a result, nearly the entire asset contribution made by the state (130 billion rubles) was lost.
In March 2022, Anatoly Chubais, who had led Rusnano for 12 years (2008-2020), left Russia, after which the security services took over the corporation. Criminal cases were opened against at least 10 former top managers of the company, including Chubais' direct deputies.
Among them were Investment Director Nail Gubaev (accused of embezzling 179 million rubles in cash), Managing Director for Investment Activities Andrey Gorkov (charged with fraud of 198.5 million rubles and abuse of office for 700 million rubles), and Rusnano partner Oleg Dyachenko (accused of stealing $50 million from Fonds Rusnano Capital in Luxembourg). In January 2025, Rusnano's Executive Director Boris Podolsky, Managing Director for Finance Artur Galstyan, and Director for Accounting Methodology, Taxation, and Reporting Maria Kasenkova were arrested. According to investigators, in 2017, they provided the state with distorted financial data about Rusnano to secure additional funding from the budget.
According to Rusnano itself, the total damage from the company's operations under Chubais' leadership has reached 200 billion rubles.
