Kazakhstan

The Eurasian Development Bank has embarked on a roadshow for a three to five year tenge denominated Eurobond.

Nostrum Oil & Gas, the Kazakh independent oil and gas company listed in London, nipped into a busy bond market on Thursday to raise $400m to complete the refinancing of its bonds due 2019.

RusHydro, the Russian hydroelectric power generator, issued the first local currency Eurobond of 2018 with a three year note on Thursday. Bond bankers said that internationally cleared local currency bonds would gain increasing traction this year.

Kazakhstan is preparing to open up its local markets to foreign investors, having this week inked a memorandum of interest with Euroclear. After a big year for EM local currency issuance in 2017, investors and bankers are excited about the possibility of easier access to Kazakh local markets, writes Virginia Furness.

Making Kazakh domestic assets Euroclearable is a laudable aim. But in its treatment of international investors, the country needs to be aspire to similarly high standards if it is to succeed in opening up capital markets.

Kazakhstan is a step closer improving foreign investor access to its domestic market and has signed a memorandum of interest with Euroclear, which will allow the settlement provider to clear bonds denominated in tenge.

China has relaxed access to the onshore renminbi (CNY) foreign exchange market for overseas banks based in Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Thailand, all countries that fall under the Belt and Road initiative, GlobalRMB has learned.

A planned Eurobond from Tengri Bank, Kazakhstan’s 24th largest lender, failed to appear in the public market on Friday, when it had been expected to be priced.

Kazakhstan’s 24th largest lender Tengri Bank was asking investors this week to extend financing amounting to over 50% of its total assets. The bemused buy-side is not exactly piling in.

Emerging market bankers said a pipeline of local currency Eurobonds is building for 2018 — including another in tenge — with Development Bank of Kazakhstan’s (DBK) recent tenge trade setting a good tone in the market last week.

Development Bank of Kazakhstan on Thursday priced the first ever tenge Eurobond, raising the equivalent of $300m from a three year note.

International investors were eyeing the first Kazakh tenge trade to be cleared by Euroclear on Thursday.