Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Ak Finansal Kiralama (Aklease), Akbank’s leasing subsidiary, has signed a $110m syndicated loan to fund renewable energy projects.

Norilsk Nickel, the Russian nickel and palladium producer, has signed a $2.5bn unsecured syndicated loan, the largest facility from Russia this year.

Promsvyazbank, Russia’s ninth largest bank by assets, has become the third major Russian private bank this year to be bailed out by the Bank of Russia.

Sistema, the Russian conglomerate controlled by Vladimir Yevtushenkov, has been forced to cancel the $70m sale of Detsky Mir shares it conducted on Monday night, after some of its assets, including its stake in the toy store, were frozen by an arbitration court in the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Shares in Detsky Mir, the Russian toy retailer, fell 8.2% on Tuesday after Sistema, the Russian conglomerate controlled by Vladimir Yevtushenkov, and the Russia-China Investment Fund sold some of their shares in the company through an accelerated bookbuild on Monday night.

Turkey’s Fibabanka has signed a $167m loan, bringing its refinancings for the year to an end.

Russian diamond producer Alrosa has signed unsecured bilateral loans for $600m to refinance a previous loan at tighter pricing. It follows the trend of loosening loan structures as bankers get more comfortable with Russian risk.

SMBC Nikko has hired a new head of emerging markets credit trading as it looks to build out its fixed income offering.

Russia’s Otkritie Bank last week announced plans to write down its outstanding tier two bonds, including an old-style $500m 10% April 2019 tier two, the contractual terms of which did not include a write-down feature. The move was an invitation to sue the private lender, said one EM portfolio manager, and GlobalCapital can reveal that Baker & McKenzie is building a case to bring against the bank.

The Republic of Bulgaria has investment grade ratings from all three big rating agencies, after Standard & Poor's last Friday revised the country's credit rating to BBB- from BB+.

EN+ Group, the Russian power and metals company controlled by Oleg Deripaska, rose more than 2% in Moscow trading on Monday morning after posting its first results since its $1.5bn IPO in early November.

Finansbank’s $780m loan is being provided by 33 banks, led by Mizuho.