Russia

Russian fertiliser producer Eurochem signed a $750m pre-export credit facility, it was revealed on Wednesday, having been in talks with banks since the end of last year.

Ukraine’s creditors should be concerned that the IMF has not yet defined the status of a $3bn Eurobond that Ukraine sold to Russia, said Ukrainian analysts following a IMF/Ukraine government press conference on Sunday.

In this round-up, Russian bank VTB tightens co-operation with China Development Bank, latest Hong Kong and Singapore deposit data, the Azeri state oil fund reports first holdings of RMB in its foreign currency reserves, and Bank of China and China Construction Bank H1 2015 reports highlight progress in cross-border RMB business.

Talk of Russian issuers’ bond plans has been gathering pace this week as Gazprom has mandated for a bond to be printed before the end of this year, sanctioned VEB looks to 2016 for a Panda bond, and Norilsk Nickel embarks on a series of investor meetings.

Russia’s Vnesheconombank is in talks to sell Panda bonds, but the note will be placed next year at the earliest, said a source close to the borrower.

Gazprom is planning to issue a Eurobond in the last quarter of this year, and has been in preliminary discussions for a size of €500m-€700m for the deal, according to a source with knowledge of the company’s plans.

Russian steelmaker Evraz signed two bilateral loans this month and is in the market for a bigger syndicated deal, according to bankers, while its competitor NLMK is still in talks with banks after trying to issue a syndicated loan for two years.

Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel is undertaking series of investor update meetings in early September.

The governments of Indonesia and Russia both signalled earlier this week that they are considering issuing renminbi denominated bonds. If the plans go ahead, these will be the third and fourth RMB deals from a foreign sovereign after the UK and Mongolia governments. However, FX volatility means now is not the best time to pull off a RMB deal.

In this round-up, China's cross border RMB trade settlement falls in July, Seoul plans to launch RMB/Won futures in October, Moscow Exchange sees growing CNY/Rouble spot and swaps turnover, China's central bank issued its yearly financial stability report, and the UK's foreign secretary said during a visit to China that London would keep supporting RMB internationalisation initiatives.

In the third systems failure in three months, derivatives trading on the primary Russian exchange Moskovskaya Birzha (MOEX) was halted for half an hour on Wednesday before service resumed.

Analysts expect Russian borrowers’ foreign currency debt redemptions to put pressure on the rouble, despite the central bank’s efforts to downplay the effect.