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Foreign direct investment in Russia has largely been conspicuous by its absence to date. But there are signs that the country may at last be beginning to attract the foreign funding necessary to unlock its huge economic potential. Guy Norton reports. Russia may be firmly back on the radar screens of both international debt and equity investors, but foreign direct investment has proved much more difficult to attract. Indeed, in absolute terms foreign direct investment has been on a downward trend since 1999. According to the Central Bank of Russia, FDI in 1999 reached $3.3bn, but has since slipped to $2.7bn in 2000 and $2.5bn in 2001. As a result, FDI in Russia accounts for less than 1% of Russian gross domestic product, far below the 5%-10% which is common across central and eastern Europe.

Private deals surge in MTN market

Along with the rest of Europe, Spain's IPO market has been in almost permanent hibernation over the past 18 months. With Spanish corporates shying away from issuing equity-linked deals, ECM bankers' main hope for the rest of the year is the emergence of more secondary offerings. Steve Metcalfe reports. Spanish equity capital market bankers have had a disappointing year, but Santander Central Hispano's (SCH) planned secondary sale of Banco Español de Crédito (Banesto) will be a welcome boost for the deal-starved market.

Eurobond issuance out of Russia has followed a pattern of all or nothing since the City of Moscow became the first issuer back to market after the crisis of August 1998. Kathryn Wells looks at why the market is on such a roller coaster ride and assesses the issuance prospects for the rest of this year's bulging pipeline. Potential Russian Eurobond issuers have been faced with a dilemma this autumn. Should they push ahead with deals, knowing that they will have to pay more than they would have had to earlier in the year, or hold off in the hope that markets will improve but risk having to pay even higher premiums in the future?

With international banks moving into the Spanish market as arrangers and participants in syndicated loans, and local banks become more fee-driven, Spanish borrowers are having to adhere to international standards of pricing and structuring. Colette Campbell and Ruth Lavelle look at how and why the Spanish syndicated loan market is maturing. The Spanish loan market has historically been a proud and protective one, with most loans syndicated at home by local, liquid banks.

Spain has long had a broad framework for securitisation, for corporate and bank issuers. But banks have remained the core issuers. Neil Unmack looks at the attraction securitisation holds for different bank issuers and the potential for a more varied market.

Spain's banks can be split into those with Latin American exposure and those without. While domestic savings banks such as Caja Madrid prosper as safe havens for bondholders, SCH and BBVA are seeing their credit spreads widen due to Latin American uncertainty. As Neil Day reports, this month's presidential elections in Brazil will be of enormous importance to investors in Spanish banking debt.

The Russian rouble fixed income market is in rude health, with a growing number of issuers set to tap the markets and an increasing number of investors looking to snap up the resulting issuance. Guy Norton reports.

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