Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and VTB Capital put Russian Railways on track for a Euromoney Deals of the Year 2011 award.

Other notable CEE bond deals were few and far between 2011, even before global conditions and an ill timed USD 1 billion international debut from Serbia slammed markets shut in mid September 2011.

Russian iron ore producer Metalloinvest deserves a mention for a solid inaugural USD 750 million five year transaction that attracted four times oversubscription against a difficult market backdrop in July 2011, but the final place in the 2011 winners list goes to Russian Railways for reopening the sterling market to CEE investors with an unprecedented 20 year deal.

Mr Pavel Ilichev, deputy head of corporate finance at Russian Railways, said that "It was quite a risky move from our side to present such a long term deal after a four year gap since the last issue from a Russian credit. But we decided that with ultra low interest rates and good liquidity as it was at the beginning of the year, it was a good opportunity to issue extra long term bonds to fit our capital needs."

(Sourced from www.euromoney.com)