Barclays

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

KfW opened the door for dollar issuers after a quiet few weeks in the currency, although the issuer — and SFIL, which followed it — had to navigate some price discovery after last week’s Italy-led volatility.

Corporate bond issuers enjoyed tighter spreads and strong order books amid an improvement in issuance conditions as they jumped back into the dollar market this week.

SFIL followed KfW into a reopened dollar market this week with only its second ever dollar benchmark, while engaging in a bit of price discovery that leads said was “spot on”.

Puxin and VCredit Holdings, both of which launched IPOs earlier this week, were covered on their first day of bookbuilding.

KfW reopened the public sector dollar market on Wednesday by picking up a hefty $4bn from a well oversubscribed book. Société de Financement Local will be next up, after mandating banks for a trade.

Swiss Re, the reinsurance group, returned to the equity-linked debt market on Wednesday with a deal that reinforced this issuer’s reputation for financial innovation: a $500m equity-neutral convertible bond that also acts as a contingent convertible security — except with more flexibility for the issuer.

Slovakia sold 10 year and 50 year bonds from a combined book of over €5bn on Tuesday, the first European sovereign bond since Italy-led volatility last week turned government bond traders’ screens into a kaleidoscope of reds and greens. It was also the longest CEE print in over a decade.

KfW will bring what bankers say will be the first “real jumbo test” for the market since a wave of Italy-led volatility hit bonds last week.

Ireland’s Keywords Studios, which provides technical services for the computer games industry, has signed a €75m three year revolving credit facility with a trio of UK banks. It is ramping up its bank debt amid a period of growth.

Slovakia revised pricing downwards on its rare 50 year bond on Tuesday morning, after taking books of over €5.3bn with the first trade from the central and eastern Europe region for nearly two weeks.

The Slovak Republic is exploring the possibility of issuing a rare 50 year euro-denominated bond as markets stabilise after a tough week.