Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

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.

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.