Bank of America

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank was able to tap a March 2016 dollar benchmark on Tuesday at the mid-market level at which the bond was trading before the tap was announced.

Publicis, the French PR and advertising firm, issued €1.2bn of bonds on Tuesday, equally split between seven and 10 year tranches. The proceeds will be used to fund its acquisition of US marketing and consultancy company Sapient.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) took plenty of plaudits last week, with a unique triple currency additional tier one (AT1) transaction that included a record-breaking offshore renminbi tranche. While some say that the trade was a testament to the depth of the CNH market, that is an argument too far. This was anything but a conventional trade.

Strong interest from long only funds and local investors helped South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy & Finance price a block in Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) at the top of guidance to raise W310.31bn ($279m).

Medtronic grabbed the record for the biggest high grade corporate bond issue of 2014 this week, as investors returned from their Thanksgiving breaks keen to put cash to work in one of the busiest weeks of the year.

Indian high yield names have been some of the most sought-after credits this year as investor sentiment picked up following the election of pro-reform prime minister Narendra Modi. But that winning streak appears to have come to an end, at least temporarily, after Reliance Communications (RComm) and Lodha Developers pulled the plug on their deals this week, writes Narae Kim.

Another rash of block trades appeared in the European market this evening, though not as many as yesterday’s seven. The crop of four deals was led by a trade of €350m in Belgian nappy maker Ontex, where private equity groups TPG and Goldman Sachs are selling down after its IPO in June.

Investor sentiment appears to have turned against India credits if the fate of two deals this week is anything to go by. Having extended its bookbuilding period there is still no sign of the debut from Reliance Communications while Lodha Developers is also giving investors more time to consider its trade.

China’s largest nuclear power producer, CGN Power, has priced its IPO at the top of its range to raise HK$24.5bn ($3.2bn), thanks to overwhelming demand from institutional and retail investors. But final allocations have proved a challenge, with some bankers complaining about the lack of transparency.

Shareholders in JD.com have raised $619m by selling some of their holdings in the Chinese online retailer, in a deal that was increased in size from the launch amount. There was no price sensitivity among investors, who clamoured for stock even as the share price spiked by 9% during bookbuilding.

Archi Indonesia, the gold mining arm of the Rajawali group, has pulled the plug on its Rph4.6tr ($377.68m) IPO as tumbling gold prices thwarted investors.

After many days in which bankers have wondered why more sellers were not bringing block trades to what are very strong equities markets, today a burst of deals hit the screens.