Russia

Russian Railways issued a rouble bond on Thursday. Russian companies may steer away from the dollar market as discussions around fresh sanctions on Russia continue.

A $240m equivalent sale of shares in M.video the Russian electronics retailer, was warmly welcomed by investors this week and has more than doubled the freefloat of the company.

A flurry of Swiss franc issuance dusted the market this week, as domestic and foreign borrowers entered a more settled market.

The Russian IPO market has a strong pipeline of listings being prepared for execution over the rest of the year. However, getting deals done could grow much harder with the threat of fresh sanctions against the country from a new US president threatening to derail the market.

Mikhail Gutseriyev, the largest shareholder in M.video-Eldorado Group (M.video), the Russian e-commerce and electronics company, is seeking to sell 24.2m shares on the Moscow exchange in a secondary public offering. The firm says that the move should help improve the liquidity of the stock.

Rosatom, the Russian nuclear power company, is using a $300m sustainability-linked loan for part of the financing of Akkuyu, the first nuclear power plant to be built in Turkey — a sign of how fast and far the concept of sustainability-linked finance is spreading.

The US this week confirmed it would follow the EU and sanction certain Russian individuals in connection with the poisoning of prominent opposition leader and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The announcements did not move markets, and are a far cry from the worst-case scenario some had feared.

The City of Moscow will enter the bond market as soon as this spring, after a long hiatus from the market, according to a senior politician. The municipality has also set its sights on a green bond, which would mark a first for the government.

Rusal, the Russian aluminium company, has arranged a 15 year syndicated loan from a consortium of local lenders. Funds will support the development of a smelting project in Siberia, which the company claims is environmentally friendly.

Fix Price, the discount Russian retailer, priced its London and Moscow IPO on Thursday after managing to secure some of the world’s highest quality investors as cornerstones at the beginning of the week.

New sanctions from the EU on Russian figures following the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny are set to have little impact on Russia, according to market experts. However, companies withdrawing from the Nord Stream 2 project indicate a growing uneasiness around conducting business with Russian entities.

Fix Price, the Russian discount retailer, has confirmed its intention to float in London and Moscow, paving the way for a $1bn-plus IPO.