CEE Equity

Global Yatırım Holdings, the Turkish investment group, has hired Barclays, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs to lead the $250m IPO of Global Ports Holding, the largest operator of cruise ports in the world, on the London Stock Exchange.

Theresa May stunned the UK on Tuesday by calling a snap general election, but equity capital markets remain calm and the next wave of IPOs is becoming more visible, with two more new deals announced this week.

A fresh IPO launch broke the quiet in the pre-Easter European equity capital market this week: and a very unusual one — the first Romanian flotation of the year. Digi Communications, a leading telecoms and media group, wants to float 25% of its equity in Bucharest.

Telenor, the Norwegian telecoms company, has sold a 4% stake in Veon, the Russian telco formerly called VimpelCom, for $262.5m through a block trade.

Three more IPOs reached successful conclusions on Tuesday and Wednesday, including the largest in Poland for over two years.

Shares in Mol, the Hungarian oil and gas company, fell 3.4% early on Thursday morning but recovered to close flat, after Čez Group, the Czech electricity company, sold its whole 7.5% stake in Mol through an accelerated bookbuild, while buying back bonds it had issued that were exchangeable into Mol shares.

Shares in Tullow Oil, the UK oil and gas drilling company, fell 16% on Friday morning after it announced plans for a £607m rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet after oil prices have rallied from their slump in 2015.

Five new IPOs were announced in EMEA this week as the market enters a crucial window in the run-up to Easter.

MD Medical Group, the Russian private hospitals group that specialises in paediatric and maternity care, will consider a share sale on the London Stock Exchange to partly finance the opening of 10 new medical facilities across Russia over the next three years.

Shares in Rusal, the largest aluminium producer in Russia, closed 3.9% lower in Hong Kong on Tuesday after Onexim, an investment vehicle controlled by Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire owner of the Brooklyn Nets, sold 3.3% of his stake in the company for HK$1.8bn ($240m), through an accelerated bookbuild launched on Monday night.

Equity-linked bond issuance, lagging behind demand in Europe, showed a burst of vigour on Thursday with the launch of three deals, including substantial convertibles for Vinci and Severstal that were both eagerly received.

Adorabella Ltd, a vehicle controlled by billionaire Andrey Guryev and his family, has sold a 4.5% stake in PhosAgro, the Russian maker of phosphate-based fertilizers, for Rb14.8bn ($250m) via an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday night that was covered in an hour.