Bank of America

Swiss Re and UniCredit are looking to be the first out of the door in the post-summer subordinated debt market, taking advantage of the recent rally in credit after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi’s comments earlier in the week gave investors confidence that the bank would enhance its measures to boost weak eurozone inflation.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch built on a strong run in Australian dollars on Wednesday, drawing an oversubscribed order book for a five and a half year print. The strength of demand for the deal — along with other recent deals from FIG issuers in the currency — suggests that appetite from domestic investors for further deals remains robust.

BMW left rival borrowers standing in its wake with a prompt dual tranche bond issue yesterday that raised €1.75bn from a €5bn book, showing that Europe’s corporate bond market is wide open for business.

World Bank sold a callable green bond to US retail investors this week as part of an effort to increase its presence in the US market. The structured print comes at a time of strong demand for callable notes from supranational and agency issuers, according to MTN dealers.

Bhira Investments, a subsidiary of Tata Power, has opened a $460m 18 month loan into general syndication as part of a $560m fundraising. The deal is already generating a lot of interest thanks to the generous pricing for what is a short tenor borrowing.

Bank of America has reached a record $17bn settlement with the US Department of Justice, federal agencies and six states, showing the extent to which litigation risk still dominates bank performance. The settlement comes hot on the heels of Citigroup’s $7bn settlement last month and the $9bn fine paid by BNP Paribas over sanctions violations.

Santiago de Chile bus operator Inversiones Alsacia missed a payment due on its dollar bonds on Monday and said it had reached the beginnings of a restructuring agreement with bondholders. The issuer went on to launch a scathing attack on Chilean authorities for changes in the concession that led to its weak financial position.

Singapore’s second largest bank, OCBC, is seeking to raise S$3.37bn ($2.7bn) from a one for eight rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet following its $5bn acquisition of Hong Kong’s Wing Hang Bank in July.

Turkey’s Akbank has signed a $1.5bn-quivalent one year refinancing facility, with a higher margin from its most recent deal despite more banks coming in. The loan marks the start of the year’s second wave of Turkish bank refinancings, with Yapi Kredi and Isbank also in the market.

US corporate issuance slowed through the week as books thinned and issuers offered concessions in order to get deals done before the summer holiday season.

This week's postponement of cosmetics packager HCP Global’s $380m term loan B at first raised fears that US investors were growing weary of Asian credits. But with the delay put down to the macro backdrop rather than any anxiety about the issuer, bankers said Asian names will still find a good reception in the US if they have a story to sell, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

China Construction Bank Asia (CCB Asia) pulled off a smart move this week, getting ahead of an expected September rush of deals to price its debut Basel III tier two offering on Wednesday. With large volumes of bank capital expected from Chinese banks, getting in early allowed CCB Asia to come inside a rival's curve, writes Virginia Furness.