Banks

HSBC said on Thursday that it had strengthened its infrastructure and real estate team, hiring six bankers externally and making five internal appointments.

Comcast got October off to a flyer after high-grade corporate dollar issuance slumped to its weakest level for four years in third quarter. However, aside from Comcast there were slim pickings in the high-grade market this week.

Public sector bond market participants are growing increasingly frustrated at the pace of the implementation of Ester, the alternative euro risk-free rate to replace Euribor. Borrowers are unable to plan for, let alone issue, a bond linked to the benchmark without the rate being published by the European Central Bank. That leaves the euro far behind other markets where Libor is being replaced, writes Burhan Khadbai.

Comcast wowed the dollar market with the fourth biggest corporate bond of all time as investors jumped in to produce a bulging order book against a strong technical backdrop.

The International Finance Corp became the first issuer to launch a green Komodo bond — an offshore bond in Indonesian rupiah — on September 28. But the World Bank had the same idea: it launched a sustainability bond in rupiah the following week.

American real estate investment trust (REIT) WP Carey paid a significant premium when it sold its second euro deal of 2018 on Tuesday. Despite the lack of reverse Yankee issuance this year, investors needed some persuading to buy the 7.5 year deal.

IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, made a rare visit to the market on Thursday against a backdrop of rapidly rising US Treasury yields. The turbulent backdrop looked to have little impact on the trade, however.

LeasePlan, the Dutch car leasing company, has launched its IPO on the Amsterdam and Brussels bourses, having filed an intention to float document on Thursday.

The State of California has bought $200m of short dated green bonds from the World Bank, the latest stage in a relationship that stretches back to the issuer’s first dollar green bond in 2009.

Most European leveraged loan deals in October are achieving savings of 25bp and more over price talk, with demand on the rise. The loan offering to fund Advent’s buyout of Distributed Power confirmed this trend, as it tightened margins and issue discounts.

After celebrating German Unity Day on Wednesday, Deutsche Telekom (DT) wasted no time in getting back to its capital markets work with its first visit to the sterling market in 18 months, satisfying some of the latent demand in the currency.

Mizuho Financial Group came to the market on Thursday with a five year senior bond in euros, just as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group did on Monday. This week’s Japanese supply has taken the year’s total to a new record.