Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

In what is turning out to be a busy week for block trades, shareholders in Etalon Group, one of Russia's biggest residential property developers, are tonight selling a 10% stake in the company worth $109m, in the form of London-listed GDRs.

Russian energy company Gazprom has signed a €1bn loan in Tokyo with a trio of banks, adding to its repertoire of funding tools this year.

Moscow Exchange (MOEX) on Monday expressed its intention to be recognised as a third-country trading venue under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II), listing some of the steps it has taken to become compliant.

Globalworth Real Estate Investments, the Aim-listed real estate investment trust focused on Poland and Romania, is pushing ahead with its proposed €300m capital increase, after securing the backing of several cornerstone investors.

The Russian loan market is moving towards more unsecured deals with Russian paper company Ilim signing the fourth unsecured deal this year, for $500m.

The Republic of Turkey is planning to use yen to round off its funding for the year, and has named three leads to arrange the deal.

Turkish banks Garanti and Finansbank have signed their last refinancing loans of the year, for $1.36bn and $780.05m, respectively.

Bulgarian insurer Eurohold is attempting to cancel the bonds it issued last year as it markets a new deal this week.

The dollar tranche of Ülker’s second loan of the year has been priced 20bp tighter than on its first loan of 2017, suggesting the market is swinging in Turkish borrowers’ favour as political noise in the country quietens down.

Shares in Migros Ticaret, one of the biggest supermarket chains in Turkey, fell 8.5% on Wednesday after BC Partners sold a 7.3% stake in the company in a block trade on Thursday night. The shares fell another 3.5% on Thursday.

Ülker has signed a $450m loan with 15 banks. It is the second time this year the Turkish biscuit maker has come to the market, with both loans oversubscribed despite political instability in its home country.

An emerging markets focussed portfolio manager at Amundi has joined Algebris Investments to work on its macro credit fund.