Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Albaraka Turk scored a solid first last week when it issued Turkey’s first Basel III compliant additional tier one bond, but while this marks progress, it will take one of the country’s larger banks to establish a true benchmark.

Turkey’s Akbank has the sole attention of EM investors on Tuesday as it looks to price its second Basel III compliant tier two transaction.

Oleg Deripaska is to step down from his role as president of EN+, the Russian aluminium and hydropower company, which floated for $1.5bn in London and Moscow in November, and as president of its affiliate Rusal, as part of a pre-planned organisational change in which he will shift focus to other business interests.

A hardening of the US attitude to Iran, tensions with Turkey and the Qatari crisis may be closing some doors for trade in the Middle East but experts are convinced it is opening others, with China's One Belt, One Road initiative pushing countries such as China, India and Russia towards the region.

Slovakia’s largest distribution operator Západoslovenská energetika (ZSE) has named two banks to arrange a new euro deal of a medium maturity.

Albaraka Turk, the Turkish subsidiary of Bahrain’s Albaraka Banking Group, has issued the first ever additional tier one capital bond from Turkey, doing so in private placement format.

Türk Eximbank is in the market for a $300m loan to refinance debt and support exporters.

Deal flow in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is picking up, according to international loan bankers, with more pre-export finance facilities from Russia and some anticipated event driven transactions in the rest of the region.

GTLK, Russia’s state transport leasing company, on Tuesday postponed its dollar Reg S seven year amortising bond, blaming “broader market volatility” for the move. But investors looking at the note said the postponement was more a sign of the buyside becoming more discerning.

The two Turkish IPOs priced this year are trading roughly in-line with their listing prices, despite recent outflows from emerging market ECM. But it is too early to judge whether this represents a positive outlook for Turkish ECM this year, according to sources.

GTLK, Russia’s state transport leasing company, is adding to the flurry of Russian bonds printed since the start of this year, but leads have been unable to crunch the final yield tighter from initial price thoughts.

The Republic of Belarus, which issued one of the best performing bonds of 2017, is looking to return with a 10 year dollar benchmark.