Russia

Gazprom printed its Sfr500m bond on Wednesday from a Sfr2bn book, one of the largest ever for an international issuer in the Swiss franc market.

Gazprom has set the spread on its first post-sanctions Swiss franc bond, a short dated note that is offering plenty of juice to yield starved private bank investors, according to bankers.

The right way to keep banks off the Russia deal is adding Russia to official US and EU sanctions lists. Having words with banks through back channels opens up a grey area ripe for misinterpretation. It’s only fair to everyone involved to sanction the sovereign or let it do the deal.

In this round-up, Malaysia opens RMB qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) applications, Macau launches a RMB real time gross settlement (RTGS) payment system, China Construction Bank (CCB) will join the new London silver fix, and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) reported a strong start to RMB currency futures trading in 2016. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB's top stories this week.

KOKS Finance and Dubai Holding are looking to buy back part or all of their dollar notes due 2016 and 2017, respectively.

In this round-up: Hong Kong cross-border trade settlement fell again at the start of the year, RMB deposits were steady in Hong Kong but falling in Singapore, Brics New Development Bank will set up in Shanghai, and PBoC said a swap line with Bank of Russia had been activated. Plus, a recap of our top stories this week.

Russian gas company Gazprom has raised €2bn ($2.2bn) from Bank of China, marking its largest fundraising directly from a single financial institution and its first bilateral loan from a Chinese lender.

Steve Hellman, Credit Suisse’s chief executive officer for Russia and CIS, is leaving to pursue other opportunities outside the bank. The bank is promoting its regional private banking head to fill the seat.

Sergey Gorkov, deputy chairman of Sberbank’s executive board, is leaving the bank, and a new acting head of global markets and head of corporate business have been appointed.

Coal is about the most basic commodity. It has become deeply unfashionable in recent years, tarred as the worst culprit in global warming. The charge may be true, but the accusations are so vehement partly because promoters of other hydrocarbons — oil, gas, biofuels — want to disguise their own responsibility.

Russian Railways is offering to buy back up to €150m of its €1bn 3.374% 2021s.

The Russian loan market has brought its first dollar deal of the year with Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) signing a long-awaited $1bn pre-export finance facility. The deal is its first syndicated loan since January 2014 and exceeds the size of any Russian loan of 2015.