BNP Paribas

On Monday, a day when European stock indices plummeted, hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates was executing short positions against 37 of the continent's companies, particularly in France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

India’s Tata Steel and Birla Carbon have decided not to syndicate their chunky loans, amid reluctance from the bookrunners to sell down their positions in a slowing market for deals.

Bank of Montreal reopened the dollar market for Yankee banks this week, using ‘shadow books’ to quickly wrap up the sale of its floating-rate note.

Transition bonds, one of the hottest talking points of the past year in the green bond market, made a decisive step forward this week when Cadent Gas, the UK’s largest gas distributor, issued a €500m deal that attracted large orders from environmentally concerned investors, even though some green bond funds shunned it. Jon Hay reports.

Optivo, the UK housing provider, has mandated banks for a long maturity sterling deal, a day after a compatriot housing association found healthy demand for a similar 23 year note in the currency.

A trio of South East Asian issuers have visited the Hong Kong dollar market in the last two weeks, as a move in the basis spurred demand. Among the issuers was Korea’s state-owned mining company Korea Resources Corporation (KORES), which made its debut in the currency and in the MTN format on Monday.

Mexico’s state-owned electric company Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) turned to Taiwan’s bond market this week to sell a dollar bond — its latest foray into the Formosa bond market.

Cadent Gas launched what by some counts is only the second transition bond on Wednesday and achieved a stellar reception in the market. The €500m no-grow bond was priced without a new issue concession and tightened sharply on the break, according to a banker on the deal.

Korian, a French owner and operator of care homes, issued a new €400m seven year convertible bond on Tuesday, as equities rallied on hopes of central bank stimulus to combat the economic cost of the Covid-19 corona virus outbreak.

US corporates leapt on the chance to print euros this week, with Honeywell, Berkshire Hathaway and Schlumberger all finding plenty of demand in the currency.

Relx, the UK specialist publisher, reopened the European corporate bond market on Tuesday after more than a week without any benchmark issuance. It was a convincing €2bn issue, but Relx had to pay double digit new issue premiums.

TCC Group, controlled by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, has agreed a $10bn two year loan to support its bid for Tesco’s Asian assets.