VTB Capital

Russian oil company Gazprom has signed a €600m five year loan facility from Crédit Agricole, bringing its international borrowing tally above €1.3bn since it regained its investment grade status earlier this year.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan was set to price its tenge denominated Eurobond on Thursday evening in London from a book that was at the last update approaching Kt140bn.

The IPO of IBS IT, a Russian technology company, was postponed on Friday due to “increased market volatility” driven primarily by US-led sanctions against Russia. According to Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, more might be coming.

The sell-off in Russian bonds is battering emerging markets investors, who are seeing the biggest spread widening since sanctions were first imposed on the country in 2014. Not only have the bonds of freshly sanctioned Rusal tanked but other Russian companies are selling off as investors fear they may be next, and the rot is starting to spread to the wider central and eastern Europe region as well.

Three new Russian equity capital markets deals were launched this week, with bankers confident that European equity investors are comfortable enough to buy Russian risk despite diplomatic tensions between the country and the West growing more hostile.

Republic of Mozambique met bondholders in London on Tuesday to lay out the long awaited terms of a restructuring package. It was more severe than anticipated and a group representing bondholders rebuffed the offer.

Republic of Mozambique met bondholders in London on Tuesday to lay out the terms of a long awaited restructuring package that was more severe than anticipated by one analyst in London. Analysts do not expect bondholders to accept the offer, but said it likely sets a floor for future negotiations.

Russia’s new bond may well be an act of defiance from the government, but it was also a savvy move in the capital markets as pressure on the country increases. Russia must have been keen to show that it did not need to alter course for funding in the face of allegations that it has poisoned ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK. But financially it was also a sensible move that helps to fund the country in the face of an escalation of the situation.

A book of $7.5bn suggests investors had few qualms about investing in Russia’s $4bn Eurobond, despite unusual clauses contained in the documentation, which has been designed to explicitly help wealthy Russians circumvent future sanctions.

International condemnation of Russia, which stands accused of poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK, has not stopped the country from forging ahead with plans to raise money in the Eurobond market. Russia had taken orders of $4.5bn and revised guidance for a new 11 year bond and a tap of its 2047s by Friday lunchtime.

Gazprom has mandated five banks for a euro benchmark bond with a maturity between eight and 10 years.

Russian Copper Company has signed a $250m loan with a club of banks to refinance a previous facility.