Barclays

Sovereign, supranational and agency issuers have been basking in the heat of rampant investor demand this week, as deals from the eurozone core to the periphery have drawn blowout books at super tight spreads. Such has been the demand that borrowers of all stripes have been able to pick their choice of currency and tenor at leisure.

The Republic of Korea will meet investors next week and the week after for a proposed dollar deal, in what is set to be a record year for sovereign bond issuance in the region.

Barclays has appointed John Chang and Vikesh Kotecha to lead its Asian equities business in what has been a turbulent few weeks for the British lender.

Matalan Finance, the parent company of British clothing retailer Matalan, today announced its intention to launch £492m of senior secured notes.

Encouraging Indian election exit poll results, a recent rating upgrade and rarity value helped Bharti Airtel price a jumbo dual currency dual tranche issue on Monday. Voracious investor appetite enabled the issuer to price flat to its existing curve, but ample leftover demand could see a replay of the hefty taps the issuer made on its debut dollar and euro bonds last year.

Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel launched transactions into two currencies on the same day. The issuer opened the books for a ten year dollar issue on Monday morning and a few hours later, it hopped over to the euro market where it opened the books for a seven year offering at the London opening.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government came back to the market on Monday with a five year issue. The trade has gotten off to a strong start, with books oversubscribed half an hour after opening.

Barclays has announced plans to take an axe to its investment banking operations, a move which will see 7,000 job cuts across the globe by 2016. The restructuring will also see a streamlining of the bank’s Asian operations, but despite the expected downsizing, bankers are not expecting any massive upheaval just yet.

State Bank of India has closed its loan at $554.5m, managing to gather enough demand during syndication to increase its borrowing from the launch size of $390m.

Rizhao Port launched the second standby letter of credit backed dim sum bond on May 8 but competing supply on the day meant that the bond priced wider than expected. Due to a limited issuing window, the borrower was forced to come to market in less than ideal conditions.

R&R Ice Cream, the Yorkshire-based maker of branded and private label ice cream, switched from euros to sterling for its return to the high yield market on Thursday.

Philip Morris International revelled again on Tuesday in European bond investors’ love of tobacco. As usual, any conscientious objectors were not missed, as even after €5bn of tobacco bond issuance in February and March, investors piled into Philip Morris’s return.