Russia

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on Tuesday morning near its border with Syria. The response to the attack in the bond market has been muted.

Russian lender VTB is expanding its China offering to meet rising demand from Russian corporates and financial institutions for RMB trade and investment services. GlobalRMB spoke to Alexander Dmitriev, global head of financial institutions at VTB, to discuss the bank’s China strategy and the challenges it faces.

Russia bonds burst back to the top of the emerging market priority list without a sanction being lifted after Alfa Bank smashed through its own yield curve on Wednesday. Demand is rampant among supply-starved investors who will be gleeful about the thawing of the geopolitical frost between Russia and the west, writes Francesca Young.

A 12 month roller coaster ride for US rates expectations has ended with the 10 year Treasury yield back where it started, and in the meantime the CEEMEA bond market has been turned on its head for completely unrelated reasons.

Alfa Bank’s print of $500m 5% 2018s on Wednesday, which smashed 25bp through its own curve, demonstrated how big investor demand for Russian credit has become as the geopolitical frost begins to thaw.

Renaissance Securities is offering to buy back what remains outstanding of Renaissance Credit’s 7.75% 2016 bonds.

The order book for Russian Alfa Bank’s first senior unsecured bond in three years has reached $2.75bn, and guidance for the three year note has been crunched to 5.125% area.

Novorossiysk Grain Products Plant, Russia’s largest grain export shipping terminal, has set the price range and opened the book for its IPO, in which it will join the first section of the Moscow Exchange.

Bankers are predicting a strong return of Russian bond issuance from non-sanctioned credits in 2016. But these issuers would be foolish to wait until next year when there is an issuance window open now.

Alfa Bank has mandated three banks for a senior dollar bond — only the second Russian financial institution bond this year — as the CEEMEA bond markets held stable after the terrorist attacks in Paris over the weekend.

In this round-up, Moscow Exchange sees fall in both spot and swap trading, South Korea deposits drop for sixth consecutive month, and the Swiss franc is now directly convertible with the onshore RMB. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB’s top stories this week.

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.