Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Russian Railways is embarking on a roadshow to market the first ever green Swiss franc bond from Russia, even as fears of the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus continue to infect EM bond trading.

Russian nickel and palladium producer Norilsk Nickel has refinanced an existing facility and in the process has increased the size of the deal and shaved the margins. According to bank lenders, the deal is one of many expected to enter the market by Russian borrowers seeking to obtain more attractive terms amid a drought in activity.

Two large Moscow listings moved closer to launch this week, a boost for Russian equity investors who have not seen any large IPO activity since the Detsky Mir listing in 2017.

Sibur, the Russian petrochemicals company, is unlikely to go public in 2020 because of unfavourable macroeconomic conditions, its CFO tells GlobalCapital.

Luminor Bank has mandated leads for the first covered bond from the Baltic region.

The US Treasury slapped sanctions on a Rosneft subsidiary on Tuesday for brokering sales of Venezuelan crude oil that supported president Nicolás Maduro’s government. Some expect this to be the first of similar actions, in the run up to the US presidential election.

Gazprom returned to the Eurobond market for the first time in a year on Tuesday, pulling in $4bn of orders at one stage in the pricing process, despite the US sanctioning a Rosneft subsidiary.

Equity capital markets investors should prepare for a pipeline of new Russian stock market listings for as early as this year, according to several bankers working on the deals. A strong year for block sales in 2019 will be followed by some sizeable IPO activity on the Moscow exchange.

Gazprom has released initial price guidance for a 10 year dollar benchmark at 3.625% area. A US investor said the deal was a “buy”.

EU member states plan to agree on a common candidate to succeed the UK’s Suma Chakrabarti as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development after his term ends in May. France, Italy and Poland have each put a name forward.

Nabil Lahham has joined HSBC to head up advisory and corporate finance coverage for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. He was most recently at Perella Weinberg Partners.

The Republic of Turkey made its much anticipated start to the year with a bang on Thursday, taking advantage of feverish risk appetite among emerging markets investors to sell its largest ever bond, a $4bn dual tranche deal.