Page 9 - BNE_magazine_04_2019

bne April 2019 The Month That Was I 9
Finance
Eastern Europe
Russia's Finance Ministry has swiftly placed $3bn and €0.75bn worth of Eurobonds, maturing in 2035 and yielding 5.1% and 2025/2.375%, respectively – the biggest issue in six years.
Russia's Finance Ministry could return to the Eurobond market by the end
of March 2019, Vedomosti daily and Bloomberg reported on March 20 citing unnamed sources and officials. The ministry reportedly plans to tap the market with a $3bn placement.
Russian metals maker Evraz will take 1.8% of the shares sold by structures of its main shareholders Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov, Alex- ander Frolov and Evgency Shvidler, the company said on March 18. The stake in Evraz is valued at about $212.5mn based on a market capitalisation of $11.8bn on the London Stock Exchange.
In 2019 the transfers between debit and credit cards of Russians jumped 1.4-fold year-on-year to RUB27.4 tril- lion ($420bn), for the first time on the record beating cash withdrawals that inched up by 3.4% to RUB26.6 trillion last year.
Troubled O1 Group of Russian bil- lionaire Boris Mints has persuaded the holders of its $350mn bonds to hold off a mandatory buyout offer, one of the largest owners of Moscow real estate said on the Irish Stock Exchange. Since spring 2018 O1 Group defaulted on three out of five bond issues worth a total of RUB87bn ($1.37bn).
Moody's Investors Service has down- graded Orient Express Bank's (OEB’s or Vostochny Bank’s) local and foreign currency long-term bank deposit ratings to Caa1 from B3, the agency said on March 15. The bank is at the heart of the case against US fund manager Michael Calvey who was arrested in February.
Net profit of Ukraine's PrivatBank,
the largest lender by assets,
jumped by 3.4 times year-on-year to UAH5.2bn ($190) in January and February, the bank said on March 21. The growth of the loan portfolio, was primarily thanks to retail loans – a rise by UAH8.6bn – and small business financing.
Russia's St Petersburg bank said it will pay 20% of IFRS net profit in divi- dend, making a record-high dividend of RUB1.8bn, continuing the efforts to improve its valuation. The announce- ment follows publication of 21% net profit increase year-on-year to RUB9.1bn ($141mn) in 2018. In the fourth quarter of 2018 alone, the bank made RUB2.6bn net profit.
Central Europe
Latvia has too many banks, said the head of the Finance and Capital Market Commission Peters Putnins in an inter- view with Latvian public television. “It is clear that the number of banks in Latvia is too big for the local market,” he said, adding that banks can survive only by finding their niche.
Capital Economics expects the Czech koruna to weaken in 2019. Analysts forecast the Czech currency would defy the predicted path seen by the Czech National Bank (CNB), influencing deci- sion-makers of the bank to raise interest rates further to keep the currency above the inflation target. The koruna is seen reaching CZK25.8 to the euro.
Latvia’s finance ministry called for market input into the form the planned Baltic covered bonds framework
will take. The Baltic states are looking into launching joint "covered bonds” with underlying assets from one or more of the three states.
Poland sold just over PLN5bn (€1.2bn) of zloty-denominated treasury
bonds maturing between 2021 and 2028. Following the sale, Poland’s
borrowing needs for 2018 are 61% covered. The demand came in at over PLN9bn. “The high demand confirms unflagging interest in Polish bonds,” the state bank BGK said in a note about the auction.
Southeast Europe
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund for global investments – Government Pen- sion Fund Global, also known as the Oil Fund, which is the world's largest sover- eign wealth fund thanks to hydrocarbon wealth – last year invested around $111mn in obtaining stakes in eight Turkish energy companies, Turkish state-run news service Anadolu reported. In all during 2018, the Norwegian fund reportedly invested $707mn in 58 Turkish companies.
The Bucharest bourse included Romanian aluminium maker Alro in its main index BET and in BET-TR, the total return version of BET. It is the first time in the history of the local capital market that these indices will include 16 companies, while Alro is the first alu- minium producer to be included.
Eurasia
Fitch Ratings for the first time assigned coal producer Mongolian Mining Cor- poration (MMC) a long – term foreign – currency issuer default rating (IDR). It issued a 'B' with a stable outlook. Fitch has also assigned a 'B(EXP)' expected rating with an expected recovery rating of 'RR4' to the US dollar – denominated senior notes proposed by MMC.
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