Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Turkish borrowers face a tough year as security concerns about the country threaten access to a funding market that is already expected to suffer volatility. But bankers say it is business as usual in Turkey, and investors agree that Turkish spreads are still an attractive prospect.

Intesa Sanpaolo is seeking other banks to join the €5.2bn loan it has fully underwritten to support Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority in their acquisition of a stake in Rosneft, the Russian oil company.

Likely faced with an assault course of volatility inducing events this year, emerging market issuers will be keen to raise cash early before Brexit/Trump/rate rises/European elections (delete as appropriate) come to blight the market.

The next chapter of the renminbi internationalisation process could soon be taking place in the commodities market with Amundi Asset Management predicting the rise of petro-renminbi in 2017.

Loan facilities backing Mid Europa Partners’ acquisition of Romanian retail chain Profi Rom Food will go into general syndication this month, with a fifth bank joining the bookrunners and tranche prices having been indicated to ‘early bird’ lenders.

Emerging market bankers are optimistic for a busy first quarter after markets opened on Tuesday in a much stronger position than they had a year ago. Sovereign issuers from the Middle East and CEE are expected to lead the charge.

In late 2016 a clutch of Russian borrowers shrugged off Western sanctions and domestic stagnation to return to the global bond markets. But will investors’ returning appetite for Russian risk survive a global repricing? Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker reports

The global rise in dollar funding, combined with political upheaval and the heavy depreciation of the lira are destroying some of the historically borrower-friendly terms available in the Turkish loan market. Elly Whittaker reports.

China and Russia are forging ahead with closer financial market ties, with the Moscow Exchange (Moex) and Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) looking to facilitate two-way investments between the countries. This comes as the Russian ministry of finance is still finalising plans for the first RMB-denominated bond to be issued in Russia.

Shares in MedLife, Romania’s largest private healthcare provider, gained 3% on Wednesday after it completed the first Romanian IPO since June 2014.

Alfa-Bank defied low pre-Christmas liquidity levels to print a $300m increase of its AT1 that was sold to a greater proportion of international investors than the original October print, according to a lead banker.

The Z5.14bn (€1.16bn) of loans for the leveraged buy-out of Allegro, the Polish online marketplace, have been allocated, with the leads choosing zloty rather than senior or junior euro bonds for the second lien piece.