Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, has signed a facility agreement to refinance a portion of its US$1.33bn syndicated loan facility.

Stemcor, the UK-based steel trader, cheered the commodity finance market with a US$480mn renewal of its revolving credit facility. The new loan is US$80mn more than the company hoped to raise.

South Africa issued a 10-year foreign bond worth US$1.5bn on May 19. It was priced at +375 basis points over US Treasuries.

AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s third-largest producer of the metal, announced the pricing of an offering of US$650mn convertible bonds due 2014 by its wholly-owned subsidiary, AngloGold Ashanti Holdings Finance.

Bahrain-based The International Banking Corp (TIBC) has defaulted on some of its debt since the beginning of May, despite the fact that TIBC holds a large portfolio, mainly made up of shares listed in Saudi Arabia, valued at more than US$400mn on December 31, 2008, according to Standard & Poor’s.

Syndicated lending to Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa has fallen by 78% year-to-date compared with the same period in 2008, according to Dealogic.

The Warsaw Stock Exchange is to launch trading in municipal and corporate bonds this year, says the exchange's CEO.

Bankers are hoping renewed Eurobond issuance from emerging market sovereigns like Abu Dhabi and Qatar will open the door for EMEA corporate bond issues.

African oil explorer Tullow Oil has managed to secure a massive US$2bn worth of new reserve-based debt facilities, based on its success in uncovering world-class oilfields in Africa in the past three years.

In late November, the UAE government quietly announced the creation of a new federal bank, called Emirates Development Bank, that will merge the assets of two large mortgage banks from Dubai – Amlak and Tamweel – and one smaller mortgage bank from Abu Dhabi, the Real Estate Bank.

In late October, the government of Kazakhstan offered to buy 25% stakes in the top four banks in the country, for a total of over US$5bn, through its investment vehicle, Kazina. The deal still needs to be approved by the banks’ shareholders.

The governor of the Bank of Latvia, Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, says he is confident that Latvia is not going the way of Iceland. “The short-term debt of Iceland is twice as high as the total gross external debt of Latvia. Moreover, half of the banks’ short-term debt is in fact long-term”, he told an investor conference in London on November 4.