Americas

China Lodging Group is set to bag about $425m through an offering of equity-linked notes, convertible into its Nasdaq-listed American Depository Shares.

Latin American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) is gearing up for its debut Panda bond before the end of 2017, which would make it the first in the format from South America. But the deal will only go ahead if the People’s Bank of China fulfills its promise of making the issuance process easier for foreign borrowers, the issuer told GlobalRMB.

As Venezuela edges closer to a catastrophic default, bond issue markets in Latin America continued to thrive this week as three Lat Am borrowers snatched blow-out deals.

Argentine stocks and bonds enjoyed a strong week after President Mauricio Macri’s Cambiemos coalition’s impressive showing in mid-term elections on October 22, and one issuer has wasted no time in jumping on the improving sentiment.

Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA left bondholders clueless on Thursday evening as to whether it would make a $985m amortisation and interest payment on time on Friday, with some calling the chances of a large and ugly default no better than a coin toss, writes Oliver West.

Rating: Baa1/BBB+/A-

After several months without any long end dollar benchmark bonds from public sector issuers, two came along at once this week — bolstering confidence that conditions are right for a borrower to print in jumbo size in the tenor for the first time in more than two years.

Equity volatility has threatened a comeback in the past week as markets prepared for the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday. But after the ECB performed within market expectations, announcing a 50% reduction in its bond buying programme, fear gauges settled down once again.

While Verizon and Danone amassed combined order books totalling more than €22.5bn on Monday, US consumer goods company Procter & Gamble returned to the euro market somewhat under the radar for its first deal in the currency in two years.

Guarantor: CPP Investment Board

Corporate borrowers dashed to print as investment grade spreads maintained their record levels ahead of a sell-off in US Treasuries, as speculation grew that US president Donald Trump would appoint a policy hawk to replace Janet Yellen as Fed chief.

A euro and sterling deal from Verizon was the only corporate bond deal in the pipeline when bankers returned to their desks on Monday morning.