Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Initial price guidance has been set for two corporate bonds from issuers in the CEE region — EP infrastructure and Metinvest. Both deals expected to be printed later on Tuesday.

Sovcombank printed a tier two bond on Monday at the wide end of guidance and the lowest end of the expected size range, which an investor said was a sign that the deal was “struggling” over the line. But a lead manager on the note pointed to healthy trading on Tuesday and its debut status and said that the issuer had simply taken sensible decisions after an in-depth price discovery process.

Trans-Oil, the Moldovan agro-industrial firm, has signed a $150m loan facility with nine lenders, including three development banks.

Kernel, a Ukrainian agriculture company, has returned to the international bond market for the first time in two years, defying the political turmoil developing in Ukraine.

Sovcombank was in the market on Monday morning with a subordinated bond, just 10 days after the issuer’s credit rating was upgraded by two major ratings agencies.

Rating: Ba2/—/BB+

Russia’s State Transport Leasing Co, also known as GTLK, printed a $550m Reg S bond on Wednesday from a book of more than $1.3bn, with a surprisingly high proportion of US offshore demand.

Montenegro came to market on Thursday for its first ever 10 year bond. Demand for the euro deal proved strong enough for the issuer to raise €500m and allowed the leads to set the yield roughly flat to fair value.

Siberian Anthracite, the largest producer of anthracite coal in Russia, has closed a dual currency loan refinancing, adding a large euro chunk to its existing dollar debt. The deal points to a growing inclination towards euro funding among Russian borrowers in a bid to avoid operational and sanction-related obstacles, say bankers.

Nordgold, a gold mining company with assets in Russia, Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Canada, has mandated banks for its first bond in more than six years.

Rusal, the aluminium company, is set to sign Russia's first internationally syndicated sustainability-linked loan, for $750m. Some bankers say Russian borrowers are increasingly interested in financings linked to environmental, social and governance factors, as they hope to attract lenders put off by sanctions that have partly isolated Russia from capital markets since 2014.

Hypo Noe and Prima banka Slovensko competed for investors’ attention with similar sized covered bonds in the same seven year tenor on Tuesday. The Austrian transaction was priced with barely any concession and the higher rated Slovakian transaction was the first debut deal to price with a negative yield and the first from Central and Eastern Europe with a negative yield.