Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Agribusiness Kernel proved the right credit to bring Ukrainian corporates in from the bond market on Tuesday. After a rough ride of corporate restructurings, the inaugural issuer was able to garner the confidence and trust of investors to raise $500m.

Russian supply returned to the eurobond markets this week with a hugely successful debut deal from aluminium producer Rusal and the promise of further dollar supply from Polyus Gold.

After a raft of highly rated sovereigns, two single-B rated borrowers appeared this week to offer the first opportunity to buy true emerging market credit from the CEEMEA region this year. One deal was a record for its type while the other reopened a market dormant for years. Virginia Furness reports.

Aggressive manoeuvres on a loan supporting Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority’s buyout of a stake in oil company Rosneft could result in the deal going to Russian state lenders, with international bank officials questioning whether there will be enough relationship business to justify the exposure and reputational risk.

Akbank plans to launch the first of its semi-annual one year refinancings early next week in the loan market’s first chance this year to gauge appetite for Turkish risk, but there is already a clear indication already that longer tenors will be challenging.

Detsky Mir, the Russian toy retailer, has announced the price range for its Moscow IPO, which could value the business at up to Rb77.6bn ($1.3bn).

Russia’s Rusal was on track to print the first corporate bond from the region of 2017 on Thursday but with 13 banks on the trade, the pricing debate was proving to be furious.

Agribusiness Kernel proved the right credit to bring Ukrainian corporates in from the cold on Tuesday. After a rough ride of corporate restructurings, the inaugural issuer was able to garner the confidence and trust of investors to print $500m.

Polyus Gold is plotting a rapid return to the Eurobond market following its successful outing in October last year.

Holders of newly nationalised PrivatBank’s Eurobonds are pushing back on the National Bank of Ukraine’s plans to bail-in the debt, but the government should not have to take on the liabilities of sophisticated lenders in event of a default. But it does need to be much clearer about its plans.

General syndication has begun on loan facilities backing Mid Europa Partners’ acquisition of Romanian retail chain Profi Rom Food.

Emerging markets investors had piled $1bn of orders into Kernel’s five year dollar bond by lunchtime on Tuesday. The deal is their first opportunity since 2013 to buy fresh debt from Ukraine.