BNP Paribas

Yankee banks set a scorching pace for issuance in the first week of 2020 as they took advantage of red-hot funding conditions.

The European Investment Bank and World Bank kept the strong momentum flowing in the euro public sector bond market on Thursday, hitting the sweet spot with 10 and seven year benchmarks, respectively.

Crossover credit Cellnex, the Spanish mobile phone mast owner, offered investment grade bond investors the chance to pick up some spread on Thursday, while unrated Air France-KLM waits in the wings.

Green corporate bond investors had plenty to sink their teeth into on Thursday, with electric utlities E.On bringing three tranches and Red Electrica making its debut in the format.

German agricultural machinery firm Claas has entered the Schuldschein market for a minimum of €150m, with one of the deal's tranches not settling until mid-August.

Indian telecommunications giant Bharti Airtel made a splash in the equities market this week, bagging $2bn from a qualified institutional placement (QIP) and $1bn from a convertible bond, the first equity-linked issue in the country in more than two years. Both the deals received a big thumbs-up from investors, reports Jonathan Breen.

Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi (TSKB) has mandated for a five year senior unsecured dollar bond as investors breathed a sigh of relief over the calming of tensions between the US and Iran.

Investors piled into the euro public sector bond market on Wednesday, allowing borrowers to achieve well subscribed order books and minimal new issue concessions for a range of maturities.

BNP Paribas and UniCredit were each more than twice subscribed for new tier twos on Wednesday, as banks launched into sales of subordinated bonds more quickly than usual at the start of the new year.

There was no let-up in the barrage of new bond supply from financial institutions in the middle of the week, as issuers put their bets on investors caring more about putting their cash to work than getting caught out by political risks.

Seven Chinese real estate issuers followed five of their peers to the offshore debt market on Tuesday, marking the busiest start to the year for the Asian bond market.

The Sonia-linked covered bond market is showing signs that it is 'maturing', with Commonwealth Bank of Australia launching a new deal in the format on Tuesday and Coventry Building Society looking to follow in the footsteps of two of its compatriots early in 2020.