Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Russian miners Polymetal and Russian Copper Company (RCC) have dug up two commodity-backed loans which are likely the tail-end of a meagre performance from the Russian loan market this year.

The Romanian mortgage market is set for growth after local authorities amended its previously unusable covered bond law to bring it into line with the best standards in western Europe.

Goldman Sachs this week announced the closure of its dedicated BRIC (Brazil, Russia, China and India) fund after nearly 10 years. The move signalled the end of the BRIC era, as this year saw recessions plague Russia and Brazil while growth in China stalled.

Russian Copper Company has signed a $200m four year pre-export finance facility with European and Russian banks.

International syndicated lending to Russia has been in the deep freeze for the last 12 months, with only a handful of safe, commodity-backed loans arranged. The European Council will review its sanctions on Russia in a few weeks, but don’t expect the market to thaw.

Russian gold and silver miner Polymetal has signed what is likely to be one of the final Russian loans of the year, in a $350m four year deal with five banks.

Bank of Georgia completed the initial public offering of its healthcare subsidiary on Monday, as it successfully priced the deal, although at a price much below what it had hoped for.

A spate of mandates hit CEEMEA this week, with Macedonia and Cameroon joining two Middle East banks in announcing new deals.

Russian steelmaker Evraz has been in talks with banks for a syndicated loan for some time, but bankers said this week that the firm will likely stick to bilateral loans instead.

Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has named the banks for the $400m four year pre-export facility it signed last week, one of only a handful of Russian loans this year.

The Republic of Macedonia has mandated Citi, Deutsche Bank and Erste Group to arrange a euro denominated bond.

Polska Grupa Energetyczna, the Polish state-owned power company, has signed Z2bn (€467m) of loans with the European Investment Bank, following a Z5.5bn(€1.3bn) syndicated loan.