Central and Eastern European financial markets have benefited from the combination of accession-driven convergence towards global markets and a host of successful structural reform programmes in the major and second-tier countries of the former Eastern bloc.
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Substantial progress over the last two years was achieved by Central and Eastern Europe, where the markets responded favourably to previous reforms, and by the former Soviet Union, which benefited from political change in some countries. Henry Gibbon reports.
International bond issuance from second-wave EU accession countries remains negligible, in stark contrast to corporate and especially bank issuers from Russia and Kazakhstan. Indeed there looks to be no end to Eurobond supply out of these two countries, while Ukraine promises to join the throng once the political outlook is clarified. John Weavers reports.
The Russian domestic bond market is through its infancy, but before it can reach fully-fledged adulthood, tenors and deal sizes need to increase. This is starting to happen. The City of Moscow – which aside from the Federation continues to be the leading and benchmark issuer – has already pushed tenors out to 10 years. Richard Jory reports.
The Russia loan market has moved seamlessly from a secured to an unsecured basis, and despite growing ticket sizes, pricing has fallen dramatically. But with the market showing some signs pushback this year, borrowers are learning to play the relationship card. David Cox reports.
The Eastern European loan market is very borrower friendly. Lack of supply and fierce competition mean borrowers enjoy fine pricing. Even as M&A returns to Western Europe thus edging up pricing, the limited market further east means that lenders are will have to focus on maintaining volumes, and pricing could yet fall further. David Cox writes.
The CEEMEA region is growing in importance for equity capital markets and is set to be larger than Benelux in 2006. Growth is not coming from traditional markets such as Poland, but from Russia and the CIS which were introduced to many new investors through London listings. The up-to-US$10bn IPO of Rosneft will open a new chapter. Owen Wild reports.
Even though Eastern Europe has been identified a region ripe for securitisation since the early 1990s, the region still lags Latin America or Asia. But some recent high-profile deals have suggested that foundations are being laid in some of the region’s larger jurisdictions. By Alec Mattinson.