Banks

Unédic, the French unemployment agency, had the euro SSA primary market to itself on Wednesday, allowing it to comfortably print €3bn with its second social bond benchmark of the year.

Europe’s high grade bond market continued to pump out deals on Wednesday, with Vantage Towers raising three tranches of debt after its IPO and Japan’s Nidec selling a green trade.

South African lender Investec has secured a syndicated loan facility, with a consortium of 29 international banks. Bank borrowers are continuing to lean on their relationship lenders in South Africa, though the environment in the country remains challenging.

Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) debuted its sustainability framework in Norwegian kroner this week. With dollar swap spreads compressed, opportunities are opening for competitive funding in other, more niche markets.

German optics maker Jenoptik has sold €400m-equivalent worth of sustainability-linked Schuldscheine, with around 250 investors participating in the euro and dollar deal.

Financial issuance got underway in the euro primary market on Wednesday, with borrowers keen to bring forward ESG-labelled bonds in the first deals of the week.

Athene Global Funding encountered slim demand after circling back to the sterling market on Wednesday, with lead managers citing a ‘challenging environment’ for new issues in Europe.

The Saudi-headquartered Islamic Development Bank is set to sell a dollar bond on Wednesday, having launched the deal on Tuesday. The sustainability sukuk is one of two FIG deals from the Gulf region this week, as Kuwait’s Boubyan Bank also entered the market for a dollar sukuk.

The Republic of Ghana, one of the few African sovereigns to have tapped capital markets last year, this week mandated banks to arrange a dollar bond. The multi-tranche bond, market participants say, will demonstrate investors’ appetite for high yield credit.

Dufry, the Swiss duty-free concession operator, has issued a new five-year Sfr500m convertible bond to help refinance the Sfr350m three-year convertible it received in April 2020 following the initial onset of the pandemic, which caused a collapse in the company’s share price.

Belgian investment company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert has raised €500m of financing at a deeply negative yield through a new bond convertible into treasury shares.

Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance has priced the senior tranche of its Rmb8.337bn ($1.28bn) auto loan ABS deal in China at an aggressive spread over the onshore benchmark and comparable trades.