Barclays

Romania issued €2bn of new debt with a dual tranche offering on Thursday, taking the largest portion of funds with a new 20 year bond.

The round of redundancies at Barclays Investment Bank has hit more senior figures, including the head of EMEA leveraged finance, a vice-chairman in ECM, the COO of EMEA banking, as well as other managing directors across the origination businesses.

The investment grade corporate bond market has started February with intent, with Thursday registering as the second busiest day of 2018 so far.

Republic of Romania offered investors a rare opportunity to buy sovereign debt from central and eastern Europe with a three digit spread on Thursday.

Endeavour Mining, the Toronto-listed, UK-headquartered gold exploration company active in west Africa, has raised $300m to refinance debt with a debut five year convertible bond issue that was well subscribed, according to several sources close to the deal.

Italian toll road operator Società Iniziative Autostradali e Servizi (SIAS) followed a four day investor roadshow with its third 10 year bond this week. A €1.9bn order book allowed the company to print its largest ever deal at a much tighter spread than its previous two offerings.

While Tuesday brought a flurry of euro benchmarks, the pace of issuance will slacken on Wednesday as the market battens down for a busy week of US data announcements.

A trio of Europe’s less frequent public sector borrowers are set to hit screens for euro transactions on Tuesday, following a long end benchmark from a French agency on January 26.

Qatar National Bank is expected to sign its $3bn loan refinancing in the first week of February, according to a source close to the deal.

When talking to syndicate managers or investors about the first month of 2018, you may think that supply volumes in the euro investment grade corporate bond market have been unusually low. However, a comparison of previous January issuance levels suggests it has been a much more normal start to the year.

Export-Import Bank of India took home $1bn in a carefully crafted single-tranche deal on Thursday that reeled in US investors.

Public sector borrowers this week set new landmarks in what has already been an exemplary year in dollars, as KfW sold the largest 10 year dollar benchmark in 2.5 years and the Nordic Investment Bank priced the tightest deal versus swaps of 2018 so far. SSA bankers are confident that conditions will hold at both ends of the curve — allowing the possibility of further long end supply and even lower short end spreads.