Banks

The high costs of bidding for the next generation of mobile technology is pushing telecoms firms, many of which operate with leveraged capital structures, to sharpen their balance sheets through asset sales and paying down debt. Mobile moguls like Patrice Drahi, Xavier Niel and John Malone are all taking steps to optimise their empires. Owen Sanderson reports.

US bond bankers are looking forward to a bumper May, with a slew of big ticket M&A financings set to hit the dollar market within days. Bristol-Myers Squibb announced a roadshow on Thursday for a deal that is expected to be around $21bn, to help fund its acquisition of Celgene.

The vast majority of Barclays’ shareholders declined to support activist investor Edward Bramson’s bid to put himself on the board of the bank at its annual general meeting on Thursday.

JP Morgan injected some life into the FIG dollar bond market with a $2.5bn trade this week, after US banks and financial names delivered another moribund month of supply.

BNP Paribas recorded a sharp rise in revenue in its fixed income, currencies and commodities trading (FICC) operations during the first quarter, it said on Thursday. Other European investment banks have registered relatively good scores on this front so far this reporting season, with the exception of Deutsche Bank.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce issued its second Australian dollar deal of the year on Thursday. The senior unsecured short-term debt is not subject to Canadian bail-in regulation.

Euro investors have become more receptive to UK bank debt this year, leading to a blowout reception for a covered bond from Yorkshire Building Society this week. But issuers are yet to break a long period of silence in sales of unsecured products, mindful as they are of a Brexit hangover in the euro market.

BP on Thursday gave the European corporate bond market its first test of a really big, multi-tranche, investment grade issue since Easter, and showed that the market is every bit as keen as before the break. Order books for the three part bond were big and new issue premiums slim to invisible.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and European Investment Bank (EIB) swung by the sterling market this week, as a lack of competitive activity and a favourable basis swap proved to be a strong lure for issuers.

Saudi Telecom Co printed a $1.25bn 10 year sukuk on Thursday from book of more than $4.5bn, with a spread just inside fellow state-owned corporate Saudi Electric Co.

William Hill’s £350m seven year high yield deal last week grabbed an opportunity opened up by the extension to the Brexit deadline, according to group treasurer Mark Hirst, supplying a sterling market that has seen sparse issuance so far this year. But the constrained supply in the market meant the company’s attempt to buy back its 2020s at 103 attracted limited investor interest.