Russia

Severstal, a Russian steel manufacturer, hit screens on Monday morning with a five year dollar benchmark.

Two Russian steel companies have announced mandates and roadshows this week and look set to become the first corporates from the country to test the bond market since the latest round of US sanctions on their country in early August.

Russian pipe manufacturer Chelyabinsk Pipe Plant has become the second metals company from the country to announce plans for a roadshow this week, joining Severstal. The Chelpipe deal — a $300m Reg S/144A five year senior unsecured note — will be the company's debut in the Eurobond market.

Two CEEMEA issuers — one of which is a Russian corporate — have mandated for bonds and are heading off on roadshows, ending a barren summer for the asset class.

Russian companies are showing more interest in euro-denominated loans, as funding in the currency becomes cheaper and as US sanctions complicate borrowers’ access to dollars. Siberian Anthracite is expected to close a loan refinancing with a new euro tranche this week, and at least two Russian borrowers are in preliminary discussions with international lenders.

Lenders unconcerned as recession portents mount — Booking Holdings gets global group for revolver — Pemberton raises €3.2bn more for Europe’s mid-market — Eurotorg re-enters rouble debt market

Belarusian food retailer Eurotorg has hit the Russian rouble-denominated debt capital markets for the second time this year, raising a Rb3.5bn ($52m) loan.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Deutsche Bank of hiring relatives of executives of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the Asia Pacific and Russia, in order to win business from those entities.

Emerging market equities have had a torrid few weeks as investors sell riskier assets over fears they will suffer if US-China trade tensions exacerbating a global economic slowdown. This has limited the supply of new deals from certain countries this year but as always in EM there are pockets of opportunity and this year’s success story has been Russia.

International investors are divided over whether to put more money to work in the Russian domestic bond market after the latest round of US sanctions against the Russian sovereign.

Sanctions on a country’s sovereign debt do not typically herald a windfall of fee-earning bond market business in that country, but Russia may prove an exception. If the sovereign distorts prices in the domestic market, Russian corporates and banks may look to the international market to borrow instead.

Tinkoff Bank, a Russian online bank, may return to the Eurobond market as early as this year as the prices on offer for their international bonds look attractive, even after the latest set of US sanctions on Russia, according to Larisa Chernysheva, head of investor relations at Tinkoff.