Turkey

Turkey's Dogus Holding is talking to banks about a loan of $400m, according to three bankers. A deal would closely follow one from Borusan Holding, which signed a loan earlier this month that was snubbed by international lenders.

Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi (Vakifbank) will open books next week on its inaugural covered bond, according to a official at the bank.

Vakifbank has bucked the trend in Turkish bank loan refinancing. Its latest $920m-equivalent loan raised a similar amount of dollars as last year despite its compatriots enduring falling commitments from lenders in the currency.

Favourable funding conditions should pave the way for an increasing amount of Turkish mortgage backed covered bond supply over the next few months, said Moody’s. Covered bonds will reduce Turkish banks’ asset-liability funding mismatch and help diversify their funding, the agency said.

The latest Turkish corporate loan for Borusan Holding may have failed to attract international banks, but there are more deals in the pipeline, bankers say.

Alternatifbank’s new tier two note rallied a further 100bp this week after an execution strategy which saw the leads revise pricing by 100bp, seeming to vindicate criticism from rival bankers for starting pricing too wide.

Poland this week tackled head on the ghosts of bonds past and has reopened the ill-fated 2036 euro note it printed in January.

Alternatifbank revised pricing by a whopping 100bp to print its "debut" note on Tuesday, drawing plenty of criticism from rival bankers for starting pricing too wide. But the leads defended their ‘inclusive’ pricing strategy.

Only domestic banks joined Borusan Holding’s $400m loan in syndication, although lead banks had hoped the deal would entice a global syndicate.

Several events have improved investor sentiment around the Turkish lira, but analysts warned that options are underpricing risks from the politicisation of the central bank and the weakened tourism outlook.

Turkey’s Alternatifbank is offering a juicy 10% handle at initial price thoughts stage for the second new style Basel III compliant tier two note from Turkey this year.

The debut Turkish euro-denominated mortgage backed covered bond from Vakifbank, mandated on Thursday, could initially price slightly wider than the sovereign. But over time it should move tighter, said Mustafa Turan, head of international banking at Vakifbank, in a roundtable.