Singapore's Olam prices add-on; desks short-staffed, EM trading thin from Hurricane Sandy

By Christine Van Dusen

Atlanta, Oct. 31 - With power outages throughout New York City and limited staffing on many trading desks as a result of Hurricane Sandy, volumes were thin on Wednesday for emerging markets assets.

Despite this challenging backdrop, at least one issuer managed to bring a deal to the market: Singapore-based food processing company Olam International Ltd. priced a S$100 million add-on to its existing 6% notes due Oct. 25, 2022 at 100.25, according to a company filing.

Standard Chartered Bank was the bookrunner for the Regulation S notes.

The notes will be consolidated with Olam's previous S$400 million issue of 6% notes due 2022, which priced earlier this month at par to yield 6%.

A few other issuers took steps toward pricing deals, including Soho China Ltd., Romania and Turkey's Calik Holding AS.

And market sources were whispering about a possible issue of notes from Mongolia.

In the emerging markets trading that did occur on Wednesday, Turkish banks were somewhat active, with price movement noted for Akbank TAS, Finans Bank AS (Finansbank) and Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi TAO (Vakifbank).

But overall, the "corporate bond market remained flat," according to a report from UFS Investment Co. "Some players continued to trade their trading ideas."

In other trading, bonds from Ukraine were mostly quiet though better bid, according to Svitlana Rusakova of Dragon Capital.

"We did not see any meaningful market reaction to Sunday's parliamentary elections as partial results fell in line with expectations and pointed to no change in the overall policy direction," she said. "Negative comments from international observers were published ... but investors did not show any signs of concern."

Ukraine's bonds inch up

Ukraine's 2017s were seen moving up ½ point to 108¾ bid, 109½ offered.

City of Kiev has also been getting some attention during the week, after Standard & Poor's put the city on negative watch and the municipal administration said it had pre-agreed to funding and that there should be no concern about the upcoming redemption, she said.

"No flows in the Kiev bonds though," she said, noting that the city's 2015s were at 92 bid, 94 offered. Kiev's 2016s were seen at 92½ bid, 94½ offered.

Soho China sets talk

For its planned issue, property developer Soho China has set price talk for its two-tranche issue of dollar notes due in 2017 and 2022, a market source said.

The five-year notes were talked at the 5¾% area, while the 10-year notes were talked at the 7¼% area.

HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays and Goldman Sachs are the bookrunners for the Regulation S deal.

Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

Romania mandates bookrunners

In other deal-related news, Romania mandated Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Citigroup and HSBC for an issue of notes due Nov. 7, 2019, according to a filing from the sovereign.

The sovereign previously indicated it would issue up to €1.5 billion of notes.

Calik markets notes

Turkish industrial conglomerate Calik Holding was on a roadshow for a five-year issue of $300 million notes, a market source said.

Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are the bookrunners for the Rule 144A and Regulation S deal.

"This issuer attempted to come to market back in May," a London-based analyst said. "However, market conditions were not supportive. Since then, several of the bond documentation clauses have been improved, adding additional guarantors and decreasing permitted debt."

The analyst said she is keeping an eye on Calik's profits and the sale of its money-losing media segment.

"The business has come a long way in the past two years, with more focus on organic growth," she said. "However, a leaner post-sale structure would provide more comfort to investors."

Akbank notes creep up

Also from Turkey, the recent issue of $500 million 3 7/8% notes due 2017 that lender Akbank priced at 99.672 to yield 3.948% was seen trading this week at 99¾ bid, 100¼ offered.

The deal's second tranche - $500 million 5% notes due 2022 - priced at 99.001 to yield 5.129% and was seen at 101 3/8 bid, 102 1/8 offered.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan and Societe Generale were the bookrunners for the Rule 144A and Regulation S deal.

Finansbank's bonds dip

Turkey-based Finansbank's $350 million 5.15% notes due Nov. 1, 2017 that priced at 99.025 to yield 5 3/8% were trading at 98 1/8 bid, 98 5/8 offered.

Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, RBS and Standard Chartered were the bookrunners for the Rule 144A and Regulation S deal.

And Turkey's Vakifbank saw its $500 million issue of 6% notes due Nov. 1, 2022, which priced at par to yield 6%, trade at 100.031 bid, 100.406 offered.

Barclays, Goldman Sachs, ING and Standard Chartered were the bookrunners for the Rule 144A and Regulation S deal.

Russian corporates in focus

Another recent issue, Russia-based Sberbank's $2 billion 5 1/8% notes due 2022, was seen at 99.9 bid, 100.2 offered after pricing at par.

HSBC, JPMorgan and Sberbank were the bookrunners for the Rule 144A and Regulation S deal.

And Russia-based Gazprombank's $1 billion issue of 7 7/8% perpetual notes that priced at par was trading at 99.9 bid, 100.2 offered.

Credit Suisse, GPB Financial Services, Goldman Sachs and HSBC were the bookrunners for the Regulation S deal.

Promsvyazbank prices notes

In other news from Russia, lender Promsvyazbank (PSB) priced on Tuesday a $400 million issue of notes due 2019 to yield 10.2%, a market source said.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC, JPMorgan and Promsvyazbank were the bookrunners for the deal, which was marketed during a roadshow from Oct. 23 to 26.

No other details were immediately available on Wednesday.

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