CEE Bonds

Yapı ve Kredi Bankası is planning an additional tier one dollar benchmark that looks likely to be the first issue of non-sovereign international bonds from the country since April.

Slovenia hit screens with the first sovereign bond of 2019 on Monday, undergoing some price discovery but closing a successful deal and paving the way for other countries to follow suit.

The Slovenian government is out with a 10 year euro bond issue on Monday, which will be priced later today. Bankers away from the deal say the highly rated issuer is a good soft test of investor appetite for CEEMEA debt.

Emerging market issuers are hesitant to rush back into the market in the new year. Most are waiting on the sidelines until the tone becomes more settled and investor desks are fully staffed.

Uzbekistan could announce roadshow dates as early as next week, having put ratings in place and picked banks for its debut Eurobond.

Turkey’s inflation fell for the second month running in December, prompting some analysts to predict that the central bank will cut the main interest rate in January, much to the concern of syndicate bankers.

Russian financial markets were greeted with mixed news on Wednesday after the US Treasury announced sanctions relief for EN+ and Rusal on the same day as imposing more sanctions on Russian individuals.

Banks with large exposures in Romania took a beating in the financial markets on Wednesday, after the country’s government unveiled plans to introduce a new tax on banking assets.

Once a darling of emerging markets investors, Turkey flirted with disaster in 2018 when instead of battling out-of-control inflation it followed voter-pleasing policies and plunged into a recession, amid a poisonous combination of political and monetary forces. Although Turkey and its banks have swiftly regained debt market access, its future is clouded by the harsh realities of global economics, write Lewis McLellan and Mariam Meskin.

The US slammed the international bond market shut to Russian borrowers in April by imposing sharp sanctions on a few private companies. Seven months later Gazprom sold a euro bond, but it is a unique credit. Investors are still terrified of another kicking from Western authorities. Francesca Young speaks to Russian borrowers about how they are planning their funding in uncertain times.

Hungary’s latest Panda looks, at least on paper, like a club deal rather than a genuine syndicated bond, with bankers disagreeing on how the deal might have played out in the market.

The Turkish Central Bank has, much to the relief of many in capital markets, kept its central interest rate steady at 24%, paving the way for the sovereign to return to the bond market in January.