Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Bank of China said on Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum with the Poland Ministry of Finance to work on the sovereign’s upcoming Panda bond.

Several Russian companies are considering issuing Eurobonds following the successful placement of nearly $2bn of corporate paper from the country this month, according to analysts.

The Panda bond market has been gaining plenty of attention ever since the asset class rebooted last year with many issuers eyeing it as a good opportunity to tap into the Chinese investor base. Looking to join the club is Poland, although the country has little need for renminbi and will be swapping the proceeds back into euros.

If the UK votes to leave the European Union on June 23, and a Brexit leads to fears the EU will fragment, EM bond markets will not escape the volatility that ensues in the immediate days after the referendum.

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has launched a tender offer on its 2020 bonds on Wednesday, becoming the latest Russian corporate to buy-back its dollar debt.

Hungary is an area of focus for the loan market this week, with both MOL Group and Hungarian Eximbank weighing up commitments from lenders.

Three stellar trades last week from Russian corporates did more to prove that the Russian bond market is open for business than the much-hyped $1.75bn sovereign issue. But this was no surprise as investors had been scrambling to get their hands on Russian corporate debt for two years.

Bonava, the Swedish housing developer, has obtained a Skr2.7bn ($325m) loan that backs its listing on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange.

Sberbank CIB, the corporate and investment banking business of Sberbank, has appointed a new head of its global markets department.

Bulgarian Telecommunications (Vivacom) has received the necessary waivers from bondholders to allow its proposed acquisition by a consortium of investors, following a bridge loan default last year that triggered a forced sale of the company.

Sovcomflot, Evraz and NLMK issued nearly $2bn of bonds between them this week, and strong demand, especially from local investors, led to dramatic price tightening.

Three Russian corporates had no problems accessing the dollar market this week, setting a strong precedent for the $40bn worth of redemptions in 2016 and 2017.