Banks

Europe’s high grade corporate market continued to offer plenty of demand for riskier structures this week, with multiple hybrids again taking up screen space.

The Arab Republic of Egypt — a frequent bond issuer — has signed its first syndicated loan. Egypt’s debut in the market, bankers said, is an attempt to diversify its funding to support an expanding state budget, just months after its debut green bond was delayed due to Covid-19. Mariam Meskin reports.

Norilsk Nickel, the Russian metal and mining company, was set to issue a benchmark dollar bond on Thursday evening, just months after it was found responsible for a series of major diesel spills.

Royal Schiphol, the Dutch airport operator, brought a dual tranche conventional and green bond with a small to flat new issue premium on Tuesday. The issuer opted to make the longer 12 year tranche green, which bankers say is indicative of lengthening maturities in the typically mid-tenor corporate green bond market.

Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group came to the dollar market with a $2bn trade on Tuesday as it jumped ahead of the September funding rush.

A trio of European SSAs raised a combined $6bn with five year dollar benchmarks this week. Kommunalbanken, the European Stability Mechanism and Nordic Investment Bank all hit a “very deep pocket” of demand in the tenor.

Covered bond issuers were urged to do their toughest covered bond trades in the wake of an outstanding result on Thursday for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, which attracted a deeper and broader range of higher quality demand for its first negative yielding structured covered bond than any of its previous deals.

Senior deals from Banco de Sabadell and Mediobanca underlined the pricing benefits of printing in green formats this week, with both coming inside conventional curves. Other issuers could be tempted to follow.

Shell, the oil and gas major, visited the sterling bond market for the first time for around six years on Thursday, printing £1bn of long maturity debt and creating a curve out to 2052.

Daimler blasted far through its conventional bond curve with its €1bn debut green deal on Thursday, in a first for the European automotive industry that is expected to herald a spate of similar issuance — and could reset expectations about the difference between green and conventional bond pricing.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) returned to the market this week to place two more deals, as it ramps up its MTN issuance following a debut in Hong Kong dollars last Friday.

In a busy week for European sovereign sustainable issuance, Municipality Finance took the chance to sell its debut social bond — the first in the format from any Nordic SSA.