Barclays

UnitedHealth Group rescued an otherwise lacklustre week for high grade dollar bond issuance with a $4bn deal as earnings blackouts kept a lid on supply.

Corporate bonds that are executed on Fridays are often brought then to give issuers some space in crowded markets, but in an otherwise quiet week French electricity grid operator Réseau de Transport d’Électricité had little competition for investor attention last Friday as it printed the longest dated deal of the week.

Norwegian state-owned grid operator Statnett priced its debut benchmark euro corporate bond on Wednesday, opting to go longer than the 10 year tenor many of the recent utility issuers chose.

Barclays has beefed up the senior management of its UK mergers and acquisitions business, as part of a plan to boost its market share across Europe.

The non-US women's health unit of Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is mulling the option of issuing its first term loans in euros to fund its buyout by private equity firm CVC.

The Joint Laender printed €1bn of 10 year paper on Tuesday, filling the book unusually quickly for a Laender deal. The deal was joined in the market by a European Union (EU) tap of an April 2031 line.

Shares in RWS Holdings, the UK translation company, closed 14.6% lower on Wednesday after it raised £185m, 19% of its share capital, through a daytime capital increase to partly finance its $320m acquisition of Moravia, the Czech provider of technology-enabled translation and localisation services.

Norwegian state owned grid operator, Statnett, priced its debut benchmark euro corporate bond on Wednesday, continuing the recent supply of utility issuers selling longer dated new issues.

Italian telecoms firm Wind called on the high yield market on Wednesday, as it planned to refinance most of its debt with a dual currency five tranche offering, deploying 20 bookrunners in the process.

A $2.5bn refinancing by Reliance Industries (RIL) and its telecommunications arm, Reliance Jio Infocomm, has been opened to retail participants.

Four Chinese corporations priced a total of $1.175bn of bonds on Tuesday, the day before the start of the Communist Party’s five-yearly congress.

The European Union (EU) is set to tap an April 2031 line on Wednesday, coming on the heels of KfW five year benchmark on Tuesday, that raised €3bn.