Americas

Novartis made its first trip to the dollar market since 2015 as it took home $3bn this week amid a clamour for high grade paper and an increasing likelihood of a Federal Reserve interest rate rise coming as early as next month.

A trio of Wall Street titans topped up their funding needs this week, taking advantage of favourable funding conditions as they continued their run of issuance to meet upcoming capital requirements.

The first ever sterling bond from the Province of Alberta arrived on Thursday, surprising onlookers and participants alike by breaking the size record for a Canadian province sterling deal. The trade's success is expected to give the issuer's peers the confidence to follow suit.

Investment houses BlueBay in London and Brandywine in Philadelphia have joined this week a recent spate of high yield portfolio managers growing new funds beyond a specific regional focus.

The Argentine province, La Rioja, was looking strong reception after releasing initial price thoughts of 10% for a planned eight year (6.5 year average life) bond on Tuesday, despite some investors expressing their fatigue at the number of Argentine provincial issuers to have brought deals.

The Province of Alberta is set to make its debut in sterling on Thursday, in a move which may pave the way for its peers to follow suit.

Even heavy indications from US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen the central bank will raise interest rates at its next meeting were not enough to derail the strong primary market in emerging market bonds.

European bond investors gave Mexico’s prospects a vote of confidence on Tuesday, placing €17.6bn of orders as state-owned oil giant Pemex raised €4.25bn of debt in the largest ever euro-denominated trade from an emerging markets issuer.

Central American development bank Cabei is looking to add at least A$25m to its existing Australian dollar bonds due 2026, and may consider a new five year this week.

Mexico’s state owned oil company Pemex has turned to the euro bond market just two months after becoming the first Latin American borrower to sell a bond at all after the election of Donald Trump as US President.

The government of Belize has again extended the deadline for a consent solicitation aimed at easing its debt payment burden, but is yet to improve its offer to bondholders.

S&P’s upgrade of Brazilian oil giant Petrobras could attract more investors into the company’s curve, according to Lat Am market participants.