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Weekly Lists
March 1, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
bne:Credit
Uzbekistan to open domestic government securities market to foreigners
Belarus seeks new $600mn loan from Russia amid ongoing energy dispute
Uzbekistan is set to open up its domestic market for government securities to non-resident entities by the end of 2019, deputy chair- man of the Uzbek central bank, Ilhom Norkulov, said last week at a Fitch Ratings conference in Tashkent.
The government resumed issuing securities at the end of Decem- ber 2018, following a seven-year break, but the securities were only made accessible to Uzbek banks and the country’s resident legal entities. The Central Asian nation hopes the move to open up the domestic government securities market to foreigners will help “revive the domestic capital market”. The development will likely follow a series of international bond issuances planned by Uzbek state-run entities this year, following the smash hit sovereign bond debut earlier this month.
Belarus seeks to secure a $600mn loan from the Russian govern- ment with the aim of refinancing its debts, the nation's Finance Minister Maksim Yermolovich told journalists on February 27.
"We are talking about refinancing the entire sum of the payments on Russian government loans in 2019. The volume of these pay- ments stands at $600mn," state news agency BELTA quoted the minister as saying. He added that Russia has not made the decision to grant the loan yet.
"As for our standard mechanisms of interaction as part of the work on the credit agreement, everything is ready, the draft resolution is prepared. It is now up to the Russian government to make the final decision," Yermolovich added.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has invested TRY40mn in a TRY200mn bond issued by Turkish supermarket chain operatör Migros, the development bank said on February 26.
The 728-day floating-rate bonds were sold to qualified investors at an annual compound interest rate of 30.39% within the scope of Migros’ TRY1bn domestic bond issuance limit, the company said on February 26 in a stock market filing.
The cost of the bonds issued by a substantial retailer backed by a prominent majority shareholder, Anadolu Endustri Holding, illustrates the tight financing conditions in Turkey that prevail despite the government’s efforts to push down loan rates and ‘encourage’ local lenders to boost lending.
EBRD’s bond buy
in Turkish retailer Migros illustrates tight financing conditions