Bank of America

Several public sector borrowers tapped the socially responsible investment (SRI) market this week, with more deals expected in February, before what many analysts expect will be a record year for the asset class.

Harley Davidson made heavy weather of strong US bond market conditions on Thursday after a dovish Fed and a month-long rally in spreads appeared to set the dollar market up for a strong run of issuance in February.

Chinese electric car company Nio made a splash in the US convertible bond market this week, raising $650m from its debut issuance and using a call spread feature to engineer a tasty premium. Jonathan Breen reports.

Kommunalbanken took advantage of being the sole SSA issuer in dollars on Tuesday as it was more than twice subscribed and tightened pricing on its first dollar benchmark of the year. Concerns over volatility from this week’s US Federal Open Market Committee meeting and non-farm payrolls kept some other issuers on the sidelines, said SSA bankers — although two are braving Wednesday’s market.

Greece’s highly anticipated return to the public bond markets on Tuesday met with a strong reception from investors. With up to €4.5bn more of benchmark bonds to issue in 2019, Greece is expected to return to the markets for a second syndication this year, which bankers say could be in the 10 year part of the curve. Cyprus will look to follow up on Greece’s success after setting out plans to roadshow a euro transaction in February.

Austria's 10 year syndication on Tuesday received a final order book that was almost twice the size of its previous record volume. Belgium was also in the market with its second OLO of the year, opting this time for a much longer maturity. Both deals were in keeping with eurozone sovereign supply this year, comfortably printing a combined €10bn from over €55bn of orders.

Chinese new economy company Maoyan Entertainment priced its Hong Kong IPO this week, after a short delay that allowed it to add a high-profile cornerstone investor. Don’t let the deal’s bottom-of-the-range pricing fool you: the company and its banks made the right move.

Austria, Belgium and Greece went out with mandates for syndications at various parts of the euro curve on Monday, just a day before a crunch vote in the UK Parliament on amendments to prime minster Theresa May’s Brexit plan. But bankers said concerns around Brexit are limited and are no roadblock to sovereign issuance.

Chinese firm Maoyan Entertainment has sealed its IPO at the bottom of guidance, raising HK$1.96bn ($249.8m) in Hong Kong after an extended roadshow.

The UK Debt Management Office has appointed a four bank syndicate to run the final syndication of its 2018/19 financial year.

Rating: Aa1/AA+/AA+

Guarantor: Financial Market Stabilisation Fund of the Federal Republic of Germany