Bank of America

Two SSA borrowers printed dollar benchmarks on Wednesday, pulling off solid trades in spite of some investors put off by tight spreads.

The European Financial Stability Facility on Wednesday sent a request for proposals for its deal window next week, with bankers saying that the supranational has a wide variety of options. The trade is likely to receive a big welcome in a hot euro market, as evidenced by an impressive Unédic trade on Wednesday — dubbed a “cracker” by bankers away from the deal — and equally strong euro deals a day earlier.

Public sector borrowers are mainly keeping to the short end of the dollar curve this week, but at least one top tier issuer is understood to be considering a 10 year dollar benchmark in the next few weeks.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank brought some supply to the sparse long end of the SRI market on Tuesday, printing a trade that alongside Rentenbank was part of a strong re-emergence of euro supply after the summer.

German medical care company Fresenius attracted 45 banks into a €3.8bn refinancing, closing the transaction on Tuesday.

Hyundai Capital Services shook off North Korea-related worries to hit the bond market at the start of the week, managing to reach its goal of $900m across two tranches.

World Bank will find out whether what has been a resilient market for public sector dollar issuance over the summer can support a jumbo trade, after mandating for what will be the first such deal in dollars from an SSA since the spring. Swedish Export Credit Corporation is also out in the currency, going ahead despite some geopolitical and US governmental turmoil over the last few days — and more issuers are lining up to follow.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank, two of the institutions named in a US lawsuit alleging manipulation in the dollar SSA market, have filed preliminary settlements for a total $65.5m, court documents show.

Hyundai Capital Services is kicking off the week with a dual tranche dollar deal that will be sold to investors in Asia, Europe and the US.

Jamaica underlined the issuer-friendly conditions on offer in EM bond markets this week after an oversubscribed tap of two bonds that left some investors with allocations of zero amid a simultaneous buy-back.

Amazon dominated US corporate bond issuance this week, but aside from the online retailer’s $16bn jumbo deal, there was over $8bn of paper from five other issuers. However, bankers believe this will be the last week of material supply before the annual two week break in the US market.

Some banks will emerge from summer with a pressing need to secure new staff, but coverage gaps are taking longer to fill, writes David Rothnie.