Barclays

Société du Grand Paris plans to steam ahead with funding as it announced a doubling of its green EMTN programme and a substantial increase to its 2020 funding programme to help prefund the financing for the next three years of the Grand Paris Express project.

A trio of firsts are coming to the high grade corporate bond market this week, with a debut hybrid from Italian oil and gas firm Eni, a green first for French chemicals company Arkema and a postponed entry to the Eurobond market for Danish pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck.

Green, social and sustainable issuance has dominated the supranational and agency bond market for a whole month, consistently outpacing conventional supply. That trend looks set to continue with three SRI deals already on screens.

Two borrowers visited the long end of the dollar curve this week and while both completed their deals successfully, investors clearly displayed more appetite for the higher yielding of the pair.

Barclays has reshuffled management of its corporate and investment bank, making Paul Compton global head of banking and CS Venkatakrishnan global head of markets.

InterContinental Hotels (IHG), the UK hotel group, sold sterling and euro debt on Thursday without paying a concession, as market technicals and the potential for a substantial coupon increase proved enough to sweep away investors’ concerns about the sector.

Europe’s high grade primary market chugged on with a handful of trades on Wednesday, but syndicate bankers acknowledge that supply looks to be muted in what should usually be a hectic period.

BPER Banca, the Modena-based banking group, has unveiled the terms for a €800m rights issue to fund an acquisition of hundreds of branches across northern Italy from Intesa Sanpaolo.

Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek made a successful return to the dollar bond market on Tuesday, raising $2.75bn from 10 year, 30.5 year and 50 year bonds.

The UK’s InterContinental Hotels and Italian airport Società Esercizi Aeroportuali have mandated for bond issues, giving investors another attempt to pick up some potentially higher yielding debt than has been on offer recently.

Investment grade companies are filtering into the euro bond market in the run-up to the last quarter of the year, including Informa, the UK publishing and exhibition company, which wants to swap its private placements for public bonds.

Asian Development Bank and the Province of Ontario hit the dollar market on Tuesday, with both issuers tapping the tricky 10 year part of the curve ahead of the start of public holidays in Asia this week which will put a pause on issuance in the currency.