CEE Bonds

Yields on Turkey’s sovereign debt hit 20% this week, stoking fears of a debt crisis. But breaking the purported psychological importance of the 20% ceiling does not add much to the well-established litany of issues facing the country’s economy.

UniCredit’s senior management team had to fend off a barrage of questions about the bank’s exposure to Turkish bank Yapi Kredi this week, as yields spiked on Turkish local currency debt and the lira slid further against the dollar. UniCredit’s equity stake is accounted at €2.5bn, but worth less than €1.2bn in today’s market.

A pair of US sanctions against Russia could have potentially disastrous consequences for local and international bond investors, especially if a planned ban against the purchase of new sovereign debt takes effect, writes Lewis McLellan.

Fallout from a diplomatic incident drove yields on Turkish sovereign paper to almost 20% this week. While yields have come off their highs, the picture remains bleak for the beleaguered nation.

Sri Lanka and Turkey are preparing to sell their first Panda bonds, enticed by falling funding costs in China's bond markets. But given they both have lower credit ratings than previous sovereign Panda issuers, they may face an uphill battle as regulators scrutinise their finances.

The US has imposed sanctions on two senior officials in the Turkish government, prompting debt and equity markets to sell off and driving Turkish lira to over five to the dollar for the first time in history.

FMO has printed an onshore Georgian lari bond for the first time, with proceeds helping a drive to de-dollarise Georgia’s economy.

HSBC has appointed Gareth Thomas as head of global banking for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. He starts in the new job in September.

Bulgarian Energy Holding, the 100% government-owned Bulgarian electricity and gas holding company, has printed a €150m tap of the €400m 3.5% 2025s it sold in June.

Bulgarian Energy Holding, the 100% government-owned Bulgarian electricity and gas holding company, is returning to the bond markets for a tap of the €400m 3.5% 2015s it sold in June.The BEH tap will be only the third public Eurobond printed in the CEEMEA market this month — the other two were a Lietuvos Energija green bond in euros and an Angola tap in dollars.

An innovative liability management exercise by Czech Eurobond issuer Net4Gas is unlikely to be repeated in the near term due to limitations on the koruna corporate bond market, according to bankers on the deal.

The government of Slovenia has relaunched the reprivatisation of Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), the biggest bank in the country, after an attempt to float it in 2017 failed.