Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Equity-linked bond issuance, lagging behind demand in Europe, showed a burst of vigour on Thursday with the launch of three deals, including substantial convertibles for Vinci and Severstal that were both eagerly received.

Latvia became the first Baltic state to issue a 30 year bond as part of a €650m dual tranche transaction this week.

Adorabella Ltd, a vehicle controlled by billionaire Andrey Guryev and his family, has sold a 4.5% stake in PhosAgro, the Russian maker of phosphate-based fertilizers, for Rb14.8bn ($250m) via an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday night that was covered in an hour.

Export Credit Bank of Turkey has followed Turkish peer Akbank into the loan market, launching the first of its semi-annual one year refinancings.

Severstal looks set to add to the growing surge of Russian supply with its plans, set out on Thursday, to meet investors ahead of a potential dollar bond.

Alfa-Bank offered up a rare rouble-denominated Eurobond on Thursday. Making it rarer still was that the issuer is not a state-owned entity and bankers said its progress would be a strong barometer for other privately owned borrowers who may wish to use the product.

Latvia is on course to become the first Baltic state to tap the 30 year maturity after emerging with pricing on a dual tranche euro deal.

Russian aluminium producer Rusal has registered a prospectus on the Shanghai Stock Exchange for a Rmb10bn ($1.5bn) seven year Panda bond programme, the company said on Wednesday.

Detsky Mir, the Russian toy retailer, this week priced its Rb18.4bn ($311m) Moscow IPO, the first IPO of significant size to be completed this year in EMEA.

Emerging market bankers are busy on the road as mandates start to ramp up but this week all eyes will be on Nigeria, which wraps up investor meetings on Wednesday.

The IPO market in EMEA is enjoying mixed fortunes, with the successful completion of the largest flotation in Russia since 2014 and the withdrawal of the first German IPO of the year late on Tuesday due to a lack of demand at an acceptable price.

Two Russian corporate deals in as many weeks have been stuffed down investors’ throats. Both were deemed tight, but Rusal, the first, sold off and is yet to recover to par. Russian issuers are famously price-driven, and the deals prompted complaints — but market dynamics mean that tight pricing is here to stay.