BNP Paribas

Four Chinese borrowers hit the dollar bond market on Thursday, competing with supply from India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Rating: Baa1/A/A-

A triple-A rated supranational and two sovereigns from the eurozone periphery took the opportunity to lock in low rates at the long end this week, amid strong market conditions. SSA bankers expect more supply to follow at this part of the curve over the coming weeks, including from France and potentially Greece.

BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank are marketing a €710m term loan 'B' to fund the secondary buyout of Armacell by PAI Partners, announced just before Christmas. This will be the insulation company’s fifth LBO, so it is well known to lenders, who ought to support the new deal despite a downgrade last year.

UK chemicals giant Ineos’s German styrenics subsidiary is marketing €500m of senior secured notes and a €680m equivalent term loan B, with an intention to issue a €300m dividend to its parent company, controlled by billionaire Jim Ratcliffe. The remaining proceeds will be used for refinancing all of its term loans and some of the upcoming investments.

High grade corporate names kicked off the 2020 sterling market in style this week, with big books and eye-catching trades for the University of Oxford, Clarion Housing and Ireland's Electricity Supply Board.

The European socially responsible investment corporate bond market has made a rampant start this year, with issuance in the first two weeks already more than 10% of the total issued by companies in European currencies in 2019.

Eni, the Italian oil and gas company, raised €1bn with a bond issue on Thursday, while Quadient, the unrated French postal systems company formerly known as Neopost, continued the run of more esoteric corporate bond issuance.

Turkey lender TSKB printed its $400m five year senior bond on Wednesday inside its own curve. The sale drew a $3.9bn book, allowing a big tightening from initial guidance to pricing. Following the clear success of the deal, other Turkish banks are expected to follow, starting with Isbank which was straight in with its own subordinated bond on Thursday.

Italy and Belgium were the latest eurozone sovereigns to build their largest ever order books for syndicated bonds on Wednesday, with the former coming close to breaking the record demand from a eurozone issuer set by Spain on Tuesday.

Demand for senior trades from Commerzbank and Raiffeisen Bank International this week reflected a softness in secondary performance, as well as a slowdown in the primary market as European banks enter blackout season.

Commerzbank was able to attract "very high quality books" for its issue of non-preferred senior euro and sterling bonds on Wednesday.