Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Turkey’s Yapi Kredi has completed its loan refinancing, bringing in $1.1bn in dollars and euros, in a deal where the margins increased just last week after the bank was downgraded.

Otkritie Bank returned to the international bond market for the first time since the start of the Russia crisis on Tuesday, surprising market watchers with its tactics with no explanation offered.

After a slow start to the week, emerging market investors were offered a smorgasbord of options as borrowers from four continents and across the credit spectrum launched bonds in dollars and euros.

Attitudes towards Russian credits have miraculously softened this year and the friendly new outlook has even filtered to the loan market, as last week Norilsk Nickel signed the first sizeable unsecured dollar loan since the EU and US imposed their sanctions. But loans bankers would do well to remember what drove them away from Russian deals in the first place.

Russia’s Norilsk Nickel has signed a $500m new money loan from five lenders, a deal which could set a precedent for Russian companies borrowing in the shadow of financial sanctions. However, tough operating conditions remain for the firm.

Otkritie Bank took advantage of surging demand for Russian hard currency bonds on Tuesday to come to market with a long awaited dollar Reg S senior unsecured deal.

Latvia saw strong demand for a new 10 year euro deal against a choppy market backdrop on Friday.

Russian Railways successfully revived the Eurorouble format on Friday with a well received seven year deal.

In a first for the Russian loan market since EU and US sanctions were imposed on the country, a borrower has agreed an unsecured dollar loan. Norilsk Nickel has signed a $500m deal from five lenders.

GE Capital has completed the first sell-down of shares in Moneta Money Bank, the Czech commercial lender, since its Ck20bn (€739m) Prague IPO in May.

When Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded Poland from A- to BBB+ on January 15th, it was not just the Polish authorities that were astonished by the announcement. According to the Ministry of Finance’s website, which described the rating action as “incomprehensible”, a Reuters survey published the previous day suggested that fewer than one in three investors expected a downgrade. Among other agencies, this year Moody’s has revised its rating on Poland from stable to negative, while Fitch has left its stable rating unchanged

It is only a year since our last report in GlobalCapital was published, but so much has changed. Our country has opened a completely new chapter. Different ideas, opportunities, and challenges. Different standards that are set higher, targets that are more ambitious. And the world itself has changed substantially. Paradoxically, the world we are chasing appears to be rather fragile.