Barclays

Indian telecommunications giant Bharti Airtel made a splash in the equities market this week, bagging $2bn from a qualified institutional placement (QIP) and $1bn from a convertible bond, the first equity-linked issue in the country in more than two years. Both the deals received a big thumbs-up from investors, reports Jonathan Breen.

The European Investment Bank delivered 2020’s first Sonia bond on Wednesday, adding to a streak of hot deals in sterling. The second Sonia deal is set to follow on Thursday.

Investors piled into the euro public sector bond market on Wednesday, allowing borrowers to achieve well subscribed order books and minimal new issue concessions for a range of maturities.

Two dollar benchmarks hit screens on Wednesday. While the issuers achieved good results, the volatility caused by Iran’s missile strike on US bases meant that the deals met with less hungry investors.

Barclays has appointed Christian de Haaij, formerly of Goldman Sachs, for its European banking business.

Two major insiders offloaded £375m of stock in NMC Health, the troubled UAE-based private healthcare company to cover debts on Tuesday. The share sale, which was priced at a 19.7% discount to close, came weeks after a short selling attack on NMC Health by US activist hedge fund Muddy Waters, which caused the company to lose more than half of its market value.

Seven Chinese real estate issuers followed five of their peers to the offshore debt market on Tuesday, marking the busiest start to the year for the Asian bond market.

The Sonia-linked covered bond market is showing signs that it is 'maturing', with Commonwealth Bank of Australia launching a new deal in the format on Tuesday and Coventry Building Society looking to follow in the footsteps of two of its compatriots early in 2020.

Triple-B rated companies piled into the bond market on Tuesday, as RCI Banque, Fresenius and General Mills raised €2.1bn between them.

Some of the SSA market's biggest names are already out for chunky dollar benchmarks, getting off the mark quickly in spite of some sharp moves in swap spreads. Most deals have gone well, but not everything has been a smooth ride.

A strong reception for a five year euro benchmark by KfW on Tuesday was enough to lure in a hesitant flock of public sector borrowers to the euro market as the pipeline stacks up for Wednesday’s business.

HSBC Germany has hired Heiko Mittelhamm as head of M&A for Germany and Austria.