Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Igor Knyazev will be taking over the role of group treasury chief at Alfa Bank in Russia when Michael Lawrence retires in June.

Emerging market bankers are saying that greater scrutiny may now need to be paid to the ratings calendar when printing bonds after Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Poland on Friday prompted one of the worst sell-offs of an EM new issue in recent memory.

Poland’s sovereign bond spreads are in turmoil, after a shock downgrade by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) late last week. The move follows a sharp drop in its political risk score in the latest Euromoney Country Risk (ECR) survey.

Hungary may add more banks to the mandate for its potential dim sum bonds, said Andras Rez, deputy chief executive officer at the government debt management agency (AKK) in Hungary.

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.