Bank of America

A strong start to the year for public sector dollar issuance is keeping up the pace so far this week, with last week’s slowdown during the Chinese New Year holidays only appearing to make investors hungrier. Both of Tuesday’s dollar deals were well oversubscribed — one spectacularly so — and there is a full card of issuers waiting to come on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Swedish telecoms company Telia sold the longest maturity corporate bond deal of 2019 so far. Telia had not been to the market for nearly two years, but has a history of long-dated issuance.

Chinese real estate companies Zhenro Properties and China Aoyuan Group reopened the Asian offshore bond market with a bang, as cash rich investors flocked to their transactions.

The International Development Association is preparing a short-term borrowing programme that the issuer told GlobalCapital will be similar in form to the commercial paper offerings of its peers the European Investment Bank and KfW. A second benchmark — likely to be in sterling or a niche currency — or a debut private medium-term note could follow, the borrower added.

The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and the Bank of England hit screens with dollar mandates on Monday to start what should be a busy week of supply in the currency for public sector borrowers, according to bankers.

KfW found plenty of appetite in the sterling market on Monday, allowing it to increase its target size during the book build for a tap, before printing an even larger size of £750m. FMS Wertmanagement will add to the sterling supply on Tuesday after picking banks for its second fixed rate benchmark in the currency this year.

Cadent Gas has entered the US private placement (US PP) market via Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Lloyds, according to market participants.

Chinese property issuers led the reopening of Asia’s offshore bond market following a week-long holiday in the Mainland to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Investors responded to the new deals with enthusiasm.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has ramped up its Brexit preparations by establishing a new EU broker dealer and appointing Sanaz Zaimi as its CEO.

Blackstone Property Partners Europe on Friday made its third visit to the corporate bond market in eight months and opted for a maturity between its two outstanding bonds. The property fund has now printed €1.75bn of bonds since it sold its Logicor logistics business to China Investment Corp in June 2017.

Akbank is kicking off the first set of refinancings of the year for Turkish banks, launching its syndication with a smaller volume and tighter margins than last year’s deal. But lenders are divided on whether the deal represents an achievement for the Turkish bank, or betrays an outlook festooned with risk. Mariam Meskin reports.

KfW set yet another landmark for a supranational and agency sterling market enjoying its best ever start to the year, as the German borrower drew a big book while placing the longest dated new issue of the year so far on Wednesday.