CEE Bonds

Republic of Croatia

The world’s first bond denominated in Uzbekistani soum was listed on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning. The bond, issued by the International Finance Corporation, is expected to be the first step in the country’s growing ambitions for a capital markets presence.

EPP, a Polish real estate investment company, postponed its five year euro bond on Monday despite having gone as far as to set the yield for the deal. The company blamed adverse market conditions, while bankers away from the deal were divided as to whether anything could or should have been done differently by the leads.

EPP, a Polish real estate investment company, has come to market for a five year euro benchmark in what will be the first non-corporate bond from CEE since early May, but early indications suggest a lukewarm reception.

Turkey’s Garanti bank has sold its first ever social bond, a $75m private placement. The International Finance Corporation purchased the bond as part of its Banking on Women Programme.

Two issuers from the CEEMEA region — Bulgarian Energy Holding and Ecobank Transnational Inc — have mandated banks for new bonds and are embarking on roadshows, breaking the wait-and-see mode that the market had slipped into over the last week.

Turkey’s Garanti bank has sold its first ever social bond, issuing a $75m private placement. The bond was purchased by the International Finance Corporation as part of its Banking on Women Programme.

Ukrainian Eurobonds weakened early this week as sentiment waned, despite some progress in an anti-corruption law that is a key condition for the disbursement of the next round of funding from the International Monetary Fund, and as the market contemplated the dismissal of respected finance minister Oleksandr Danylyuk.

Unrealistic pricing expectations are keeping two EM corporate issuers by the wayside after volatile markets forced Atrium to cancel a tender offer combined with a new issue last week.

In a rare instance for CEE countries, Romania has printed 30 year dollar bonds.

Slovakia, Croatia and Romania dived into the primary bond market this week — all keen to take advantage of what has been by recent standards a rare period of market stability to print.

Romania has released initial price guidance for a dollar bond offering around a 30bp-40bp pick-up over its outstanding curve, according to a banker away from the deal.