Debt capital markets: Sistema issue points to fixed-income recovery

After a troubled start to the year when defaults in the domestic bond markets occurred almost daily, there are tentative signs of a recovery in investor sentiment towards fixed-income offerings from Russian issuers. In late August conglomerate Sistema provided much-needed cheer for market participants when it successfully launched a R20 billion ($620 million) bond – the largest corporate issue to date this year, trumping an earlier R15 billion transaction from energy company Gazprom.

Thanks to strong demand from a mix of Russian and overseas investors the issue was able to achieve better-than-expected pricing.