Russia

Russian shipping firm Sovcomflot has closed a $264m club facility with five international lenders, although the outlook for Russian companies in the syndicated loan market remains questionable going into the new year.

Russian financial markets were greeted with mixed news on Wednesday after the US Treasury announced sanctions relief for EN+ and Rusal on the same day as imposing more sanctions on Russian individuals.

Russian Copper Co (RCC) has closed a $250m five year credit facility, marking the second refinancing that RCC has secured this year. The tight margin sparked a sliver of optimism in the market.

A host of emerging market opportunities are set to be presented to equity investors in 2019 with Kazakhstan likely to lead the way with a number of highly anticipated listings. Sam Kerr reports.

The US slammed the international bond market shut to Russian borrowers in April by imposing sharp sanctions on a few private companies. Seven months later Gazprom sold a euro bond, but it is a unique credit. Investors are still terrified of another kicking from Western authorities. Francesca Young speaks to Russian borrowers about how they are planning their funding in uncertain times.

VTB Capital is encouraging Russian borrowers to consider the dim sum market as a supplementary source of funding because their access to core markets has been restricted since the US imposed sanctions in April. However, the potential scale of the dim sum market is limited.

In this round-up, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) published 18 new regulations for foreign banks in China, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has not injected money through reverse repo for a number record number of days and Spain and China sign MoU for closer financial collaboration and potential Panda bonds.

International uproar over Russia seizing three Ukrainian navy ships last weekend did not stop Russia selling a €1bn 2.875% 2025 bond on Tuesday. But investor fears are growing ever higher over the likelihood of further US sanctions on the country. Russia’s pivot away from dollars seems to indicate the same concerns. Francesca Young, Sam Kerr and Lewis McLellan report.

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VTB Capital has no interest in adopting blockchain technology for banking, said Dmitry Snesar, VTB’s head of client coverage, at VTB Capital’s Russia Calling conference in Moscow this week.

Bankers love to advise their clients to look at the bigger picture and print now, for fear that that in just a few weeks or months, they could be facing a much tougher time. So the chorus of DCM officials criticising Russia for its timing in selling a €1bn seven year bond this week is more than a little hypocritical.

Fears that the Russian Federation's €1bn bond issue would only find demand domestically seem to have been assuaged as a source close to the deal said well over half the deal was sold to international investors. That source also denied the deal was in any way designed to bait the West, and said its timing was simply a matter of wanting to get ahead of worsening market conditions.