Barclays

A loan of up to $1.8bn for Russian telecoms company Vimpelcom has been rushed through signing so quickly that a senior loan banker who had been working on the deal did not know it had been completed.

Philippe El-Asmar, head of global equities distribution and head of distribution Asia Pacific at Barclays in Hong Kong, will leave the firm at the end of April.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has returned to the dollar market after a seven year hiatus with a Reg S/ 144A dual tranche issue. It is the second sovereign offering out of South Asia this week after Sri Lanka priced a five year bond on Monday night.

Ed Jennings, a FIG DCM director who left Barclays last week, will be joining Lloyds, GlobalCapital has learned.

La Banque Postale is hitting the road today to meet investors for its planned euro denominated tier two bond, in what could otherwise be a light week for issuance. The bank will roadshow the deal until April 10 before deciding on a sale.

Zambia opened books on the first African sovereign deal of 2014 on Monday morning, starting with a large new issue concession to compensate for a weak credit story. A successful bond could help usher in a run of issuance from Zambia’s peers, with several African sovereigns in the process of planning deals.

OCP, the Moroccan company that claims to be the world's largest phosphate exporter, will start a roadshow on Tuesday for a benchmark dollar bond. It would be the first corporate Eurobond from Morocco.

Sri Rejeki Isman, also known as Sritex, is looking to make its dollar bond debut, joining a number of other Indonesian credits that are also looking offshore. The issue is likely to be a five year bond of up to $300m in size, according to Moody’s.

State Bank of India looks to be the next Indian name in the bond market after mandating banks for a new dollar issue.

US investors’ appetite for bond issues remained sharp this week, while issuance dipped, as they grabbed opportunities to participate in deals from less frequent issuers like MidAmerican Energy and Interpublic Group and gobbled up extra spread.

Wal-Mart, the US hypermarket group, launched its second bond in euros on Tuesday, raising €1.5bn. The deal showed that the euro market still has capacity for big drive-by corporate transactions, despite the heavy issuance recently, culminating in last week’s record issuance of €18.5bn.

Damac Real Estate Development's sukuk this week has blazed a trail for sub-investment grade borrowers as Middle East investors start to migrate down the credit spectrum.