Americas

Emmanuel Macron’s topping of the first round of the French presidential election last weekend drove the best euro funding conditions for months. Public sector borrowers duly piled into the primary market. With more political risk ahead, many are racing to be 75% done for the year by summer, writes Craig McGlashan.

The dollar market has enjoyed yet another strong week, with one issuer breaking its size record and another pair matching their own. SSA bankers are readying themselves for a busy May in the currency. But despite issuers keen to push out the curve, it looks like 10 year benchmarks are off the table.

The Province of Manitoba rounded off a week of record breaking deals with a dollar trade that matched its largest ever benchmark in the currency and helped it diversify away from its North American investor base.

China Rapid Finance decided to cut price guidance for its US IPO in order to secure a high quality anchor investor, raising $70m instead of the original target of up to $115m, according to a banker on the deal.

Moody’s downgrade of Trinidad and Tobago this week turned the two island nation into a crossover credit and left the Caribbean with no investment grade sovereigns.

Elation in the euro markets after the first round of the French presidential election at the weekend continues to wash over the public sector bond markets, with the Province of Quebec selling its largest ever benchmark in the currency and Spain printing €5bn of inflation-linked paper.

Santander’s Brazilian operations were behind a 14% increase in the group’s attributable profit for the first quarter, with the UK arm also rebounding from a weaker 2016.

Peer-to-peer lender China Rapid Finance is eyeing the bottom half of guidance for its US IPO, giving it a possible size of up to $105m, according to a banker working on the deal.

Energy company Orazul Energy Egenor, the Peruvian arm of Orazul Energía, took advantage of a cash-rich Lat Am bond market and scarcity of Peruvian issuance to sell $550m of 10 year bonds on Tuesday.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has named four new members to its board of directors.

The European Financial Stability Facility on Tuesday priced a dual tranche deal that bankers are describing as possibly its greatest ever, laying to rest some of its other long dated trades this year that drew criticism. A pair of other issuers have also hit screens in a euro market enjoying what one syndicate head called “probably the best conditions we’ve seen in months”.

Netflix is issuing its first bond in euros. It's a high yield bond, but not as we know it. It is single-B rated but the covenants are investment grade — though Netflix's leverage is racy. To buy it, you need to be a fan.