Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

The treasury chief of one of Russia’s largest private banks is set to retire this summer.

Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) is a step closer to restructuring its $500m of bonds due 2018 and will seek agreement from investors at a meeting on February 17.

Belarusbank has signed what it describes as the largest loan in Belarusian banking history for €245m, although the country’s wilted syndicated market means that Belarusbank was also the issuer that set that record.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has given Russian companies the nod to list depositary receipts on its main board.

Central and eastern European borrowers gathered in Vienna this week for Euromoney’s Central & Eastern Europe Conference and are not short of plans for the capital markets this year.

Russian companies are now allowed to list depository receipts in Hong Kong, according to an announcement from the city’s stock exchange.

Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel is “completely pre-funded” for the next two years, its head of corporate finance told GlobalCapital.

Slovenia is considering a buyback of its dollar bonds in order to reduce its exposure in the currency.

Lithuania plans to stay out of what has been a tough opening for central and eastern European sovereigns, as many of the issuers — now considered to be SSAs — suffer a problem many of their western European peers have been dealing with for a year.

Hungary is planning a €1bn bond this year, but is also still looking for a window in the near future in which to issue a dim sum transaction.

Serbia is planning to fund the bulk of its funding needs through the domestic market, a funding official from the country’s finance ministry has said.

Romania is set to come to the bond market “sooner rather than later”, said Anca Dragu, the country's Minister of Public Finance on Tuesday. It is likely to print a trade in euros.