It seems anyone from eastern Europe can launch a Eurobond these days.
Moldova, chopped in two by civil war after the break-up of the Soviet Union, is rated just two notches below investment grade and this year raised five-year funds. Georgia and Azerbaijan, whose first years of independence were overshadowed by war, hope to issue debt next year. But does anyone seriously believe that the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria could tap the Euromarkets?
The Chechens do, according to CIS debt specialists. They reportedly sent a delegation to London this summer in an attempt to raise international finance to rebuild the war-ravaged republic, which declared independence from Russia in 1991 and was engaged in a bloody war with them until 1996.
A colourful group of international advisers is assisting the recovery, according to the Chechen government’s internet site. They include Boris Pankin, the USSR’s last foreign minister, Mete Göknel, ex-head of Turkish state-owned oil company Botas, and Jacques Attali, the notorious first president of the EBRD.
But it’s oil, rather than marble, that could make Chechnya rich. A large volume of oil is about to start flowing from fields in the Caspian Sea and the best way to get it to market is through the pipeline passing through Chechnya. The earnings from tolls will be enormous and Chechnya is trying to raise $3 billion to increase the capacity of the pipeline and build an oil refinery.
Because the republic is still within Russia’s internationally-recognized borders, the pipeline plan – and any Eurobond issue – in theory requires approval from Moscow, although the Chechens in recent years have rarely taken no for an answer. “I would hate to be the first person to tell them that they are not going to be able to do a Eurobond,” says one banker.Gavin Gray
