Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

South African lenders, Investec and Standard Bank’s loans are due to sign this week, along with United Biscuits' acquisition loan, which is expected to close tomorrow.

Yields on subordinated bonds issued by Otkritie remained at over 40% on Tuesday after rumours of bail-out plans by the Russian Central Bank hit the market on Friday.

Otkritie Bank this week offloaded a 19.85% stake in Cypriot RBC Bank in a move that analysts said was an attempt to ease liquidity concerns after what had been a volatile few weeks for the lender. But they dismissed concerns over the sector as being overblown, saying any problems were largely confined to Otkritie.

Russian bank debt has fallen out of favour after events snowballed into fears that Central Bank of Russia is lining up to pull the plugs on Credit Bank of Moscow (CBM) and Otkritie.

Ukrainian loan deals are due to hit the market at lower margins than last year as miniscule interest rates and squeezed bond yields provide a more favourable market for borrowers.

Kuwait’s Burgan Bank’s Turkish branch, Burgan Bank AS, signed a dual tranche facility of around $205m from 14 banks, at slightly higher pricing than its top tier compatriots.

Nomura has added a new head of global markets sales for Russia and CIS as it continues to expand its emerging markets business following the appointment of David Ishoo-Mirzayoo as head of CEEMEA sales in March.

Intesa is expecting to close its €5.2bn syndicated loan deal to finance Qatar Investment Authority and Glencore’s acquisition of a 19.5% stake in Rosneft by mid-September after much delay.

The state of Russia's banking system is making investors nervous and causing bond prices to drop. But that does not necessarily mean funding troubles for some firms in the sector.

Russian potash company Uralkali signed a $850m pre-export finance facility with 11 banks on Wednesday, showing that investor appetite for the country remains strong despite the US enforcing more sanctions.

Akbank, one of Turkey’s largest banks, has secured another $1.2bn facility for this year with the same number of banks as its facility in March but with new Asian lenders on board and tighter pricing.

Otkritie, the Russian privately-owned bank, has hired a capital markets veteran as it looks to build a capital markets franchise.