Banks

Sweden’s Modern Times Group has signed more bank funding related to spinning off Nordic Entertainment, as the media company’s talks with PPF to sell its Bulgarian business were scuppered after falling foul of regulators.

Euro covered bonds issued by ANZ New Zealand, Caffil and National Bank of Canada on Tuesday provided “the least worst option” in a spread widening environment, said bankers.

The International Finance Corp sold its joint biggest sterling bond by volume with its debut Sonia-linked bond on Tuesday, adding to the flurry of trades in the format since the start of the year. But the Sonia rush is “not over yet”, according to a banker at one of the leads, with a few more on the horizon before the UK parliament votes on Theresa May's Brexit deal next week.

Yapı ve Kredi Bankası is planning an additional tier one dollar benchmark that looks likely to be the first issue of non-sovereign international bonds from the country since April.

Cellnex Telecom, the Spanish wireless telecommunications company, has reopened the equity-linked market in Europe with a €200m tap of the €600m convertible bond it issued exactly one year ago.

Slovenia hit screens with the first sovereign bond of 2019 on Monday, undergoing some price discovery but closing a successful deal and paving the way for other countries to follow suit.

French telecoms operator Orange ensured the cobwebs were blown off the corporate bond market on Tuesday when it launched the first multi-tranche offering of 2019, which included the longest tenor of the year to date and the year’s first sterling corporate bonds in its four tranches.

The bond market is well ahead of schedule in its adoption of potential Libor replacements, with several issuers having printed notes linked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (Sofr) in the dollar market, and to the Sterling Overnight Index Average (Sonia) in sterling. Borrowers are setting strong standards for other participants to take up, as well as adjusting structures to ensure the eventual market is optimal. That does not mean the job is finished, of course. GlobalCapital spoke to some of the pioneers in the Sonia and Sofr markets about their work so far — and the challenges ahead.

Aircraft leasing company Avolon has returned to the offshore syndications market for a $300m loan.

Guotai Junan International Holdings paid a premium over the curve of some of its Chinese brokerage peers for a $200m bond on Monday.

The Republic of the Philippines opened the bond market for Asian sovereign issuers in 2019 with a $1.5bn outing, making efforts to boost its engagement with Chinese investors and paying just a small double-digit premium for the deal.

Seazen Holdings, previously known as Future Land Holdings, and Powerlong Real Estate raised $500m between them on Monday for near-term refinancing, with positive market sentiment allowing them to price their bonds tightly.