Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

EPIF Infrastructure, has released initial price guidance for a six year fixed rate euro benchmark.

Lukoil has raised a $600m 10 year export credit agency-backed loan via its Uzbekistan subsidiary, as bankers say the loan market remains open for some Russian borrowers.

Turkish real estate developer Ronesans Gayrimenkul Yatirim is still assessing investor feedback and is yet to release initial price guidance, despite having told the market that it was looking to price its bond “as early as” Wednesday.

The Trump administration’s decision not to announce new sanctions against Russia on Monday is unlikely to be the end of the sanctions saga, with designations having been proven to be the US's most effective weapon against Russia.

The US Treasury’s targeting of Rusal in its latest round of sanctions was far from the random hit that investors are claiming. The US has demonstrated its power over the dollar-based financial system — and it has no need to do further damage.

Turkish real estate developer Ronesans Gayrimenkul Yatirim has set the tenor on its benchmark dollar bond at five years, and is expecting to print the note “as early as tomorrow”.

The Republic of Turkey nipped into the market on Monday afternoon to raise $2bn with an SEC registered bond, just days before presidential and parliamentary elections were called. While one EM investor called the issuing strategy unusual, a rival banker said it was a classic case of Turkish opportunism, adding that the higher yield paid is the reality of the market now.

Some EM fund managers and fixed income analysts are already in discussions over whether investors stuck holding Rusal bonds may be able, with the issuer’s help, to create a workaround that would allow the company to stay current on its debt obligations.

The IPO of IBS IT, a Russian technology company, was postponed on Friday due to “increased market volatility” driven primarily by US-led sanctions against Russia. According to Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, more might be coming.

China plans to turn Hainan into its latest trade laboratory, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns countries joining the Belt and Road Initiative against accumulating excessive debt, and the securities watchdog says it will allow international participants to trade onshore iron ore futures by early May.

With little clarity on the full scope of the new round of sanctions on Russia from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC), service providers have been quick to cut ties with the seven sanctioned oligarchs and their related entities for risk of violating new rules on facilitating business with designated individuals or entities.

In the past, some investors were able to draw a line dividing the Russian businesses in which they parked their cash from Vladimir Putin’s government, despite what some have called a “feudal” hierarchy in the country. Last week’s US sanctions obliterated that line.