Bank of America

Europe’s high grade corporate issuers piled into the bond market during the run-up to this week’s European Central Bank meeting, with Vonovia and JDE Peet’s bringing standout jumbo trades.

Two issuers in Europe’s high grade corporate bond headed to the short part of their curves on Monday as inflation worries continue to rattle the market ahead of the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday.

Buyers piled into a debut sustainability-linked bond from Italian oil major Eni on Monday, despite there being some pushback from investors over higher polluting issuers coming to the ESG markets.

Mondi, a UK packaging and paper company, has signed a €750m revolving sustainability-linked facility, days after completing an acquisition of a Turkish packaging firm.

Supply was light in the US corporate bond market this week, partly because the May non-farm payrolls report is due on Friday. Participants are braced for volatility after the US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday it would start selling its holdings of corporate bonds, purchased as a stimulus measure at the height of the pandemic. It was left to Vodafone of the UK to reopen new issuance after the Memorial Day holiday.

AstraZeneca, the UK drug company, showed the eager demand for merger and acquisition financings this week when it achieved ultra-tight pricing on a $7bn bond issue to fund its acquisition of US biotech firm Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

French banks and foreign rivals are slugging it out in France’s corporate finance boom, where proximity to the government is an advantage, writes David Rothnie.

Europe’s high grade corporate borrowers piled into the bond market on Wednesday to sell debt before the public holiday weekend in the UK. Investors showed no signs of indigestion on one of the busiest days of the year so far.

Singapore real estate investment trust Mapletree Industrial Trust has raised S$823.3m ($618.3m) from a sale of new units to fund data centre acquisitions, with the deal receiving a warm welcome from investors despite not being very well flagged.

JD Logistics wrapped up its jumbo Hong Kong IPO on Thursday after a strong turnout from institutional investors, attracted to the company’s fair valuation and its parent’s credentials. The multi-billion-dollar listing is set to be the city’s largest float since the beginning of the year, writes Jonathan Breen.

American Tower Corp, the US wireless infrastructure company, printed the biggest euro high grade corporate bond of the day on Tuesday, to finance its expansion into Europe and Latin America.

JD Logistics has rolled out its long-awaited HK$26.5bn ($3.4bn) listing in Hong Kong, set to be the city’s largest IPO since the beginning of the year.