CEE Bonds

Bond buyers showed strong appetite for Russian Railways’ new dollar benchmark on Wednesday morning despite pricing levels seen as tight by sector analysts.

The Republic of Slovenia will issue new euro debt to finance a buyback of its existing dollar bonds in its second trade of 2017.

Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi is the first of the Turkish banks to follow a successful sovereign tap last week, and with Turkish bank debt well bid in secondaries, it will be expecting a better result than its last senior trade.

Last year was a record in terms of number of downgrades of emerging market sovereigns, with another four added this year — Turkey, Mozambique, El Salvador and Costa Rica. But Société Générale on Friday became the latest firm to criticise the ratings agencies for their pessimism.

Polish energy provider Energa SA is meeting investors this week for its first Polish non-financial corporate bond since June last year, which will also be the first corporate deal from anywhere in Central and Eastern Europe this year.

PBoC opened the week with a near-300bp weakening of the dollar fix, while Rusal received the green light for its upcoming Panda bond deal, and the Shanghai-London Stock Connect is now one step closer to becoming reality.

Turkey made an opportunistic move on Thursday to reopen its recent 10 year bond for another $1bn. The $4.7bn book size showed there is no let-up in demand for Turkish sovereign debt.

Steel company Severstal played true to Russian borrower form on Thursday, printing its new 4.5 year bond well inside its existing curve, according to bankers.

Russian Railways is still on track to be the country’s first borrower of 2017 to complete a deal in the syndicated loan market, with bankers expecting to wrap up documentation soon. But Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) is leading a charge of big Russian pre-export finance facilities that look set to dwarf the unsecured market in the first half of the year.

Steel company Severstal, one of four Russian corporates rated above the sovereign, looked set to print below 4% on Thursday, tighter than guidance.

Turkey has made an opportunistic move to reopen its recent 10 year bond with a tap to raise an expected $1bn.

Agrokor, a Croatian retail, food and agriculture company, has enough funding to repay debt maturities this year despite a recently pulled loan syndication, according to Moody’s, but cash flow is low and addressing next year’s PIK notes will be critical to its rating.