Americas

Brazilian state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras issued a new long 10 year of more than $4bn via an exchange offer on Monday and the note immediately jumped above par.

The US corporate bond market shrugged off two market interventions by the Federal Reserve this week — an emergency funding injection and an arguably underwhelming rate cut — as supply picked up on Thursday with trades from Wal-Mart and Volkswagen.

Two Canadian issuers revitalised the dollar covered bond market this week as Royal Bank of Canada raised €1.5bn of three year funding on Tuesday at half the cost of its senior funding and at a substantially lower cost than a year ago. The transaction was followed by Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (FCDQ) which opened order books for another three year on Thursday.

Moody’s upgraded the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) from A1 to Aa3 on Wednesday, paving the way for the multilateral lender to approach traditional dollar SSA investors.

Minera México, the largest subsidiary of Southern Copper Corporation, priced flat or inside its parent company’s curve on Thursday as investor appetite for Mexican credit shows no sign of easing.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce did not have to pay any premium to investors on Wednesday to launch its first fixed rate senior deal in the sterling market, which has coped well with a mass of supply in recent days.

Wells Fargo hasn't wasted time in the bond market this week. It launched a euro senior bond on Wednesday, a day after raising sterling debt. Concurrently, Spanish lender Kutxabank was marketing a senior non-preferred bond in euros, its debut in the format.

The US Federal Reserve is expected to cut its interest rates by 25bp on Wednesday, but investors are keeping a close watch on what the central bank says when it makes its policy announcement. Many are likely to be disappointed unless it hints at bigger cuts in the coming year.

Brazilian lender Banco Votorantim found ample demand for a dual tranche issue on Tuesday after waiting nearly two weeks from the end of its roadshow to announce a deal. Compatriot food company BRF could now bring a deal a little quicker having concluded its own investor meetings.

The public is increasingly conscious of environmental challenges facing the ocean economy, and the capital markets are taking note. Industries using the oceans are numerous and fragmented, making allocating money in a sustainable way challenging. But some routes are open for investors looking to improve activities involving plastics, shipping and fishing. Jasper Cox reports.

Demand for euro covered bonds issued on Tuesday by Virgin Money, NN Bank and DZ Hyp has markedly improved from earlier this month, and lead managers have announced a further series of transactions from Royal Bank of Canada, SR Boligkreditt, Skipton Building Society and Liberbank.

US firms are turning to the convertible bond market in droves in order to issue cheap debt before a potential global economic downturn.