Barclays

There was just a smattering of public sector dollar deals this week — but a wide difference in how they fared.

Investor appetite for yield and renewed confidence in the Nigerian financial sector helped United Bank for Africa (UBA) size an inaugural dollar bond at the top end of the target range on Thursday.

Barclays has sold more than half its stake in Barclays Africa, its separately listed South African subsidiary formerly known as Absa Bank, through a huge R37.7bn ($2.9bn) block trade on Wednesday night that was covered in 45 minutes.

Corporate bond issuance in Europe slowed to a trickle on Thursday after a gush of trades on Wednesday, as investors said they were growing increasingly tired of the recently popular execution method of offering a chunky spread at initial price thoughts, only to tighten markedly by final pricing.

KommuneKredit fell short of full subscription with a three year dollar benchmark on Thursday, with few updates provided through the book building process.

Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) sold its largest ever sterling bond on Thursday, raising £300m with a three year deal.

Stora Enso, the Finnish-Swedish wood, paper and packaging maker, started a roadshow on Tuesday for a €300m bond that will have one of the longest tenors in the high yield market this year.

United Bank of Africa (UBA) is set to become the second Nigerian lender to tap the dollar market in less than two weeks after emerging with pricing for a debut five year deal on Thursday.

DBS Group Holdings and HSBC Holdings are wooing debt investors, with the former seeking a dollar senior deal, and the latter a Singapore dollar perpetual. The Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim) is also collecting bids for its fundraising.

Public sector borrowers are aiming for the short end of the dollar curve, as swap spreads in the area hover around the spot in which they started 2017, having dropped sharply from the year’s highs hit in March.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank’s first ever affordable housing bond raised €2bn across two tranches on Wednesday. One banker on the deal said he was “certain other borrowers will issue more like this”.

The UK Debt Management Office is keeping its options open on a planned syndication for September, a deal some investors feel the sovereign should use to push its conventional curve out to 2072. Meanwhile, a French agency is bringing its first syndication in sterling for over two years.