BNP Paribas

France announced on Tuesday that it will come to market for an 18 year inflation linked benchmark, making the most of a pre-Easter lull in issuance.

Saudi Arabia has had to scale back banks grappling to get on its $16bn loan, which will be used to refinance a $10bn loan taken out in 2016.

Syndicates away from the Kingdom of Bahrain's new issue are saying that a huge widening in the sovereign’s outstanding bonds is indicative that investors are “not happy” to see the new paper arriving, though those on the deal are simply blaming market volatility.

China’s Agile Group Holdings and Taizhou Huaxin Pharmaceutical Investment Co reopened their old bonds on the back of some anchor orders on Monday, in an attempt to use as much of their fundraising quotas as possible before the end of the month.

Four Chinese issuers hit the market with new transactions on Monday, despite the credit market ending on a weak note last week. As the companies try to make use of their remaining fundraising quotas, the focus remains on new issue premiums.

Personal computer maker Lenovo priced a $750m deal on Thursday as part of a liability management exercise, switching some investors out of an old bond that will mature next year. But like others in the market, the borrower had to pay a double-digit new issue premium to ensure success.

UK property company Hammerson has signed a new £1.5bn three year revolving credit facility, bringing in a dozen banks for a financing aimed at slashing the funding costs of its acquisition target, Intu.

French engineering consultancy Altran has set the term on its €750m rights issue to finance its acquisition of US global design and engineering company Aricent.

Spanish utility Iberdrola had significant success with its debut green hybrid bond in November when it received €3.2bn of orders. However, its second such bond failed to tighten from initial price thoughts when it was issued this week.

As the final week of the quarter approaches, credit markets are limping towards the Easter break, in need of respite after three months of heavy issuance punctuated by flares of volatility. Nigel Owen reports.

The auto finance arm of General Motors opted for short maturities to try to ensure the success of its first bond sale of 2018, but the €1bn dual-tranche deal only received orders of €1.7bn and the lead managers were only able to tighten one of the tranches from initial price thoughts.

Glencore, the Swiss-based mining and commodities group, issued a $500m seven year equity-neutral convertible bond on Tuesday that achieved terms described as very aggressive. It attracted around 100 investors, including a couple of sovereign wealth funds.