Bank of China

How risky is it to lend money to a coal-fired power plant or an oil company? OK for another five years, perhaps — but how much longer can they carry on in the face of climate change? So far, banks have largely ducked questions like these. But from next year, more and more of them will be giving some kind of answer in their annual reports.

Despite expectations of a slowdown in the pace of issuance in the European high yield market, two borrowers brought €2.9bn of new bonds this week. Both issuers, Spanish construction firm Aldesa and Italian banking payments group Nexi, marketed refinancing deals.

Commodities trader Trafigura sold a Rmb500m ($78.9m) three year Panda bond through a private placement on April 26, marking the issuer’s first feat in China. The company said it hopes to become a regular issuer in the Panda market.

Chinese oil and natural gas producer CNOOC jumped into the bond market on Wednesday for a dual-tranche deal, raising $1.45bn.

The benchmark US Treasury 10 year yield moved through the 3% level this week, creating what some say was unnecessary panic in the market. That was clearly reflected in the dollar bond issuance in Asia, with some borrowers ploughing ahead with well-received 10 year transactions and others ditching the tenor altogether. Addison Gong reports.

Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) was one of a number of Chinese state-owned enterprises to sell bonds in the international market this week, bagging $500m from the first senior perpetual deal in the region in more than a month.

State Grid Corporation of China priced a $2.8bn-equivalent four-tranche deal on Tuesday, managing to navigate the impact of the benchmark 10 year US Treasury yields finally breaching 3% after days of sell-off.

Beijing Enterprises Water Group (BEWG) raised $500m on Tuesday to retire a bond maturing in May, finding support from investors despite the numerous unrated state-owned options available to them.

Fortune Auto Finance sold two floating tranches in China’s securitization market on April 20. It captured the onshore market’s optimism on the back of the People’s Bank of China’s announcement last week to release extra liquidity through a reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cut.

Bookrunners revealed more than €3bn of new speculative grade deals from seven issuers in the European high yield market this week. Coupons are slowly widening in the primary market, but they are still hitting issuers’ pricing targets, said market participants.

Yuexiu Real Estate Investment Trust, the only Chinese Reit to have issued bonds offshore, returned last Friday for a $400m three year deal, pricing it slightly inside its parent company’s curve.

Fortune Auto Finance (FAF) is approaching onshore investors with a Rmb3bn ($477.5m) transaction on Friday. The auto company is coming to the market as a number of foreign originators unveil their plans to raise more onshore RMB — from both structured and vanilla fixed income deals.