Bank of America

Greece’s comeback bond this week should build on its already strong secondary performance, said SSA bankers, paving the way for the sovereign to bring more deals before its scheduled bail-out exit in August 2018. Bankers were quick to point out that while the deal resembled its last comeback trade in April 2014, much has changed since — including its cost of borrowing.

AT&T racked up a monster order book on Thursday, as the US telecoms giant hit the market with a $22.5bn M&A financing.

Forecasts that Europe’s corporate bond market would be all but closed for the summer this week were belied by Unilever on Monday when it launched its biggest-ever euro bond and took some of the tightest corporate pricing ever.

Kraton Polymers, the US chemicals, has scheduled a bank meeting for Monday in London for a debut €220m term loan, with proceeds repaying some of its existing dollar facilities.

After Monday’s British flavour to corporate bond issuance, German real estate company, Grand City Properties brought the only new issue in the market on Tuesday, as part of an exercise to extend the average maturity of its debt.

India’s Nirma is set to hit the US term loan B market for financing to back its bid for Tronox Alkali, a US-based company. The flexibility that comes with selling into an institutional market pushed Nirma to pick a combination of a US TLB and a bond for its acquisition, said bankers.

Bain Capital’s Diamond, the cleaning chemicals business, had to remove a controversial restricted payment clause before printing the triple-C rated bonds of its new financial structure on Tuesday.

Greece’s return to bond issuance on Tuesday drew praise from bankers across the SSA sector, who are now eagerly waiting to see whether the book — much smaller than its previous comeback bond in April 2014 — trumps that older deal for quality.

After Monday’s British flavour to corporate bond issuance, German property company, Grand City Properties, and French food services company, Sodexo, brought deals to the market on Tuesday. Grand City printed a €600m nine year new issue and Sodexo tapped its €600m 0.75% April 2027 deal for €200m.

Following a US Treasury report on regulating the financial system, published last month, the chief executives and chief financial officers of the big US banks lined up to praise the reforms’ potential — though they could be the last nail in the coffin of international regulatory co-operation.

First-time issuers China Chengtong Holdings Group and China Logistics Property Holdings Co are preparing for their dollar fundraisings, tapping banks to lead their respective offerings.

Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) raised $300m from its first trip to the additional tier one market on Monday. Investors embraced the structure, pushing the books to eight times covered.