CEE Bonds

Turkey's Akbank launched a dollar sustainable bond on Tuesday, just months after it raised its first ESG-linked syndicated loan.

Turkey launched a June 2026 dollar sukuk on Tuesday, which some market participants believe is set to come "cheap" as the sovereign looks to extend its curve in the asset class.

Turkey has re-entered the debt capital markets with the intention of selling a Sharia-compliant bond, a sukuk. The proposed deal, which some say could come at a premium, was announced just days after Saudi Aramco achieved an enormous order book on its debut sukuk.

Georgian Railway steamed into the green bond market on Thursday, raising a benchmark dollar bond.

Georgian Railway and Togo-headquartered Ecobank Transnational launched a green bond and a sustainability-linked bond, respectively, on Thursday.

Turkey’s credit metrics took another hit this week after contradictory statements on interest rates from president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and central bank governor Şahap Kavcıoğlu. Market participants said the environment for foreign investors is rocky, and any new sovereign Eurobond would have to offer a "big premium".

Hungarian Development Bank is set to return to bond markets as it seeks €500m of funding, a year after it last raised international debt.

Belarus this week gave investors a chance to demonstrate the ESG credentials they are often so keen to trumpet. Few took it. Although the country’s sovereign bonds sold off in the wake of the controversial arrest of a journalist on Sunday, investors gave a number of reasons why issues such as human rights violations were no deterrent to buying an issuer’s bonds. But there are signs those excuses may not hold up for ever, writes Mariam Meskin.

Following the international outcry over the forced landing of a Ryanair passenger plane carrying a Belarusian dissident, some emerging markets investors are said to have had sudden doubts about the ESG characteristics of Belarusian sovereign bonds. What took them so long?

The EU has agreed to hit Belarus with sanctions and restrictions in the aftermath of the grounding of a Ryanair flight and the arrest of one of its passengers, journalist and activist Roman Protasevich. Market participants say that market access for the sovereign is in doubt.

Polish synthetic rubber group Synthos announced a €500m high yield bond on Tuesday, following its recent agreement to buy two specialist rubber businesses from Trinseo for $449m. It will fund the acquisition through cash but it launched the new bond to pay down its existing term loan and put in place a more flexible capital structure, including an increased €500m revolving credit facility.

Yapi Kredi Bank and Garanti Bank this week became the latest Turkish banks to refinance syndicated loans, in the process raising ESG-linked facilities. The trend towards ESG-linked financing is not driven by the desire to cut costs, which for many has been only symbolic, but by a desire to help boost borrowers’ credentials and to make life easier for international lenders.