Barclays

Portugal is limbering up for its first benchmark of the year in a week heavy with eurozone periphery sovereign issuance, including an auction where Italy’s three year yield nearly dipped below zero.

Pohjola Bank and NordLB paid slim new issue concessions for five year senior debt on Wednesday, but market participants pointed to the dangers of pushing spreads in too tightly.

Israel has embarked on a US roadshow for a dollar bond, using the same three lead managers as it has done for its last two Eurobonds.

Nationwide Building Society has continued its funding surge into 2016, offering sterling investors a rare chance to pick up long dated senior unsecured paper from a UK lender.

China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group offered bond investors a generous premium to make up for its unrated status and for executing a deal with a less investor-friendly structure. Chinese banks, including those working on the trade, submitted anchor orders and contributed to the transaction's success.

South Korea’s Woori Bank sealed a 144A return to the international bond market on January 12. The issuer’s aggressive pricing strategy kept US investors at bay, but it was unavoidable as the borrower wanted cheap funding, said bankers on the deal.

The Asia ex-Japan debt capital market was crowded with dollar issuers on January 13, with two investment grade bonds and two high yield notes opening in the morning.

The European Financial Stability Facility and Nederlandse Waterschapsbank on Tuesday brought euro benchmarks in five and seven year maturities. Now much more at those tenors is expected.

Spain has opened its funding year with a deal in the upper echelons of record sovereign deal sizes and an enormous book for the third year running. but it's the quality of investor the sovereign attracted this time that was most notable, according to bankers.

Nestlé brought a £100m tap to market on Tuesday, seizing the chance for an opportunistic trade that enlarged a bond issued in December.

Though financial institutions and public sector entities were busy issuing bonds on Tuesday, corporate issuance was quiet, despite the success of the only two trades so far this year and increased confidence that European markets can cope with Asia’s difficulties for the moment.

Ping An Life Insurance Company of China started building books for its inaugural dollar bond on Tuesday, while South Korea’s Woori Bank and China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group are also wooing investors for their respective dollar deals.