Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Two CEEMEA issuers, Egypt and Hungary's Mol, are in the market this week to raise funding. According to experts, issuers are eager to get their funding in before expected geopolitical and coronavirus-related volatility impacts markets.

Sovcomflot, the Russian state-owned shipping company, has launched its IPO on the Moscow stock exchange with domestic orders already in the book.

Allegro, the Polish e-commerce company, will grow the size of its Warsaw IPO to meet investor demand for the deal.

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The string of Russian deals in European equity capital markets recently has continued with a $600m sale of new shares and convertible bonds by Mail.ru Group, one of the country’s largest internet companies.

Allegro, the Polish e-commerce company, covered its Warsaw IPO throughout its range on the first day of bookbuilding on Tuesday as investors rushed into the book. It will be one of the largest IPOs of the year at about $2bn.

The European Union has passed the penultimate hurdle delaying its €100bn Support to mitigate Unemployment Risk in an Emergency (SURE) programme, all but clearing the way for issuance to begin. But one country’s request for funds has not yet been granted.

Luminor’s Estonian cover pool will have Latvian mortgages, Bawag’s Austrian cover pool will include Dutch mortgages. And once merger plans are fully completed, Caixabank’s cover pool will include those from Bankia, making it Spain's biggest, with a share of almost a third of the Spanish covered bond market.

Romania’s promotion to secondary emerging market status in the FTSE Russell EM index is the spark its capital markets desperately need in order to grow, experts have said.

Russian brokerage BCS Global Markets has hired a senior executive from Citi to run its equities business.

Ignitis Grupe, the state-owned Lithuanian energy and utility company, has opened books on its IPO on the Nasdaq Vilinus and London Stock Exchange. The company’s listing will benefit from a framework agreement signed with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, under which it will participate in the IPO.

Despite a plethora of risks for Turkish assets, including the lira hitting fresh lows and both banks and the sovereign facing downgrades, the bi-annual refinancing season for Turkish banks is up and running. According to lenders, Akbank will open the market with a deal likely to close soon.