Central Asia

Uzbekistan's bond market debut, which is expected to be priced as early as Wednesday, has captured the attention of emerging market investors.

Uzbekistan has told investors that it is focused on a dual tranche five and 10 year transaction and that indications of interest received so far are in excess of $1.5bn.

The roadshow for Uzbekistan’s debut dollar denominated 144A/Reg S benchmark started this week, but with only two of the three international banks originally picked for the mandate still present on it.

Uzbekistan landed on screens on Monday morning, announcing a roadshow to promote its debut in the Eurobond market.

DWF, the UK law firm, has filed paperwork on an initial public offering in London, but many in equity capital markets are predicting that the the city’s largest deals will come from the emerging markets.

An old argument has rattled on for years between some CEEMEA issuers and banks about the wisdom of paying nothing to banks to arrange sovereign bonds. Uzbekistan has settled it.

Uzbekistan could announce roadshow dates as early as next week, having put ratings in place and picked banks for its debut Eurobond.

A host of emerging market opportunities are set to be presented to equity investors in 2019 with Kazakhstan likely to lead the way with a number of highly anticipated listings. Sam Kerr reports.

Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the Kazakh state-owned rail company, sold Sfr150m five year Swiss franc bonds on Tuesday, in choppy market conditions.

Kazatomprom, the world’s largest producer of natural uranium, priced a $451m IPO this week with a strong, but concentrated, book backing the deal.

The $450m IPO of Kazatomprom, the Kazakh state-owned producer of natural uranium, is due to be priced at $11.60, the bottom of the initial range, valuing the business at $3bn.

Two emerging market (EM) sovereigns hit the euro market this week: one debuting and the other returning after a year-long absence. Both deals met with warm receptions, giving some credibility to the notion that euro investors will be happy to stay in EM deals even as quantitative easing (QE) winds up and rates climb.