Americas

Bank of Montreal raised £400m ($569m) of five year funding in covered bonds on Monday following £1bn deals from Santander UK and Nationwide last week. But with fewer sterling covered bonds redeeming after this month, primary activity is expected to slow down.

After international investors placed nearly $450m-equivalent of orders for the Province of Buenos Aires’ peso-denominated floater last week, bankers and investors said that issuers in the country may favour local currency over dollars in coming weeks.

The US president says China will lower trade barriers and make a deal with Washington, the recently merged banking and insurance watchdog officially launches, and Vanguard makes five exchange-traded funds (ETFs) available in RMB and dollars in Hong Kong.

China Resources Land bagged Rmb4bn ($635.7m) from a two tranche Panda bond on Wednesday, marking its fifth outing in the market. But the issuer had to change tack at the last minute after investor demand built up for the longer-dated note.

The Province of Buenos Aires was ready to price a Euroclear local law peso floater on Thursday evening as investors showed appetite for Argentina’s positive real interest rates despite volatility in broader markets.

Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bread maker, began meeting fixed income investors on Thursday ahead of a proposed perpetual hybrid bond as Latin American issuers continue to look to bring unconventional structures to market.

Three of Brazil’s most important issuers received overwhelming responses to tender offers in the last week, as the country’s corporates focus on liability management.

General Mills put the investment grade corporate dollar market back on a more positive course this week with a tightly priced trade that paved the way for a rebound in supply.

US health products and services company PerkinElmer priced a €300m corporate bond this week, nearly two years after its debut in the currency. The deal saw good demand as the company paid a spread of 60bp over mid-swaps for the three year notes.

Private equity-owned ION Investment Group has been named as the high bidder of the two that have made last minute bids to beat Temenos in the race for UK trading technology company Fidessa.

Rio Oil Finance Trust, the SPV through which Rio de Janeiro’s state pension fund RioPrevidencia issues bonds backed by royalties from state oil giant Petrobras, has a knack for timing.

Brazilian bonds rallied on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled that former president Lula Inácio da Silva must go to jail before exhausting his last appeal against a corruption conviction — effectively ruling him out of October’s presidential election.