Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

In this round-up: Hong Kong cross-border trade settlement fell again at the start of the year, RMB deposits were steady in Hong Kong but falling in Singapore, Brics New Development Bank will set up in Shanghai, and PBoC said a swap line with Bank of Russia had been activated. Plus, a recap of our top stories this week.

Russian gas company Gazprom has raised €2bn ($2.2bn) from Bank of China, marking its largest fundraising directly from a single financial institution and its first bilateral loan from a Chinese lender.

The State of Montenegro locked down €300m towards the refinancing of the €390m of Eurobonds it has maturing in April on Thursday, but was unable to crunch pricing tighter inside initial guidance released earlier in the day.

Montenegro has released initial price thoughts for a five year euro denominated bond at 6% area, offering around a 50bp new issue premium, according to a banker away from the deal.

Bodgan Klimaszewski is no longer deputy director of the public debt department. Instead, Robert Zima has been promoted into the job.

Steve Hellman, Credit Suisse’s chief executive officer for Russia and CIS, is leaving to pursue other opportunities outside the bank. The bank is promoting its regional private banking head to fill the seat.

Sergey Gorkov, deputy chairman of Sberbank’s executive board, is leaving the bank, and a new acting head of global markets and head of corporate business have been appointed.

Coal is about the most basic commodity. It has become deeply unfashionable in recent years, tarred as the worst culprit in global warming. The charge may be true, but the accusations are so vehement partly because promoters of other hydrocarbons — oil, gas, biofuels — want to disguise their own responsibility.

The Republic of Slovenia printed a €1.5bn 16 year bond on Thursday from a book of €1.75bn and achieved its aim of building out the longer part of its curve.

Slovenia has firmed price guidance for a euro 16 year benchmark to 147bp over mid-swaps, a level that syndicate officials away from the deal said represents a double digit new issue premium.

Russian Railways is offering to buy back up to €150m of its €1bn 3.374% 2021s.

The Russian loan market has brought its first dollar deal of the year with Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) signing a long-awaited $1bn pre-export finance facility. The deal is its first syndicated loan since January 2014 and exceeds the size of any Russian loan of 2015.