BNP Paribas

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.

Triple-B rated companies piled into the bond market on Tuesday, as RCI Banque, Fresenius and General Mills raised €2.1bn between them.

The Republic of Slovenia became the first CEEMEA issuer to print a bond this decade, quickly launching a €1.5bn deal from a book of €11.75bn on Tuesday.

Issuers rushed to open the euro covered bond market this week. Trades from ABN Amro, Erste Group and LBBW showed that investors are ready to put cash to work, but higher new issue premiums suggested that issuers were taking a 'conservative' approach at the beginning of the year.

BNP Paribas and Danske Bank were looking to raise non-preferred senior debt in the sterling market on Tuesday, with the cost of funding in the currency having fallen into line with euro pricing levels.

A number of Chinese real estate companies kicked off their refinancing for 2020 on Monday, with higher rated issuers tapping longer-dated bonds and the weaker names actively engaging in liability management.