Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Rating agency Moody’s has slapped beleaguered Russian private bank Otkritie with a two notch rating downgrade this week, as subordinated debt holders in the bailed out bank look set to take heavy losses.

The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) this week began trading for dollar-rouble and euro-rouble fixing instruments, one day traded products that settle into official MOEX FX fixing rates.

United Biscuits’ £725m ($948.23m) loan is being split into two term loans and a revolving credit facility with pricing linked to the company’s leverage, according to a banker on the deal.

Albaraka Turk, Turkey’s first participation, or Islamic, bank, kicked off the syndication of a $100m murabaha facility on Tuesday.

Ukraine is understood to have picked banks for its first Eurobond since 2013, and following a massive rally of the sovereign’s bonds, its reception in the market is expected to be strong.

The dry spell is over for investors in emerging market debt with several mandates hitting the screens on Tuesday. The first trades will be eagerly watched as a barometer for new issue premiums after a summer that has seen escalating geopolitical tensions and further questions about the direction of travel of both the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve.

UniCredit syndicated a loan it underwrote for Hungarian communications company Invitel in January to five banks last week.

Russian aluminium producer Rusal priced its second Panda bond of the year on September 1, reopening the market after a quiet month.

United Biscuits, the maker of McVitie’s biscuits and Jacob's Crackers, signed a £725m syndicated loan on Thursday with 21 banks.

Emerging markets bankers have been moving towards unsecured debt and lower pricing in the Russian loan market, however the latest round of US sanctions has dragged Rosneft’s long-running $5.2bn acquisition loan back into the spotlight. Bianca Boorer reports.

Bank of Russia (CBR) has stepped in to help stricken Otkritie, in what is the first bail-out of a systemically important bank in Russia, and arguably the largest Russian bank failure in history.

News of Otkritie’s bail-out has filled the buy-side with questions about the nature of the Centra Bank of Russia’s recovery plans sending Otkritie’s subordinated bonds yo-yoing between a cash price of 49 and low to mid 80s.