Banks

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.

Deutsche Bank’s recently announced policy on returning to the New York office in September fits what many bankers have been expecting for months and heralds a return to normality. But for a small subset of bankers who left offices in London for lockdown in March 2020, the end of restrictions will also mean a change of circumstances — and getting used to living in a new country.

Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) has launched its $500m borrowing into general syndication, after attracting six banks in the senior phase.

JP Morgan has appointed Andrew Verdasca as head of East Asia technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), according to an internal announcement seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Industrial Bank has sold a dual-currency deal through its Hong Kong branch, becoming the first Chinese lender to print an offshore ‘carbon neutrality bond’. It relied heavily on support from a 42-member syndicate team, as well as its relative rarity in the international debt market, to nab around $922m.

Two Chinese local government financing vehicles joined the flurry of dollar bonds in the Asia market on Thursday.

SAIC Finance, the auto financing arm of Chinese state-owned SAIC Motor Corp, sold a rare green auto loan ABS this week.

Two Chinese real estate companies sold sub-one year bonds on Thursday, raising $350m between them.

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.

Financial institutions returned to the dollar in their droves after the memorial Day holiday, with 12 borrowers cramming more than $15bn of issuance into three days this week.

The ESG capital markets were left reeling on Thursday after a group of banks provided a £1.1bn-equivalent sustainability-linked facility that does not have any key performance indicators included — on the agreement that the borrower will add them within 12 months. Mike Turner reports.

Europe’s corporate bond market has seen an influx of ESG deals from highly polluting sectors, testing how much environmentally and socially conscious investors buy into firms' transition stories.