BNP Paribas

Italian tyre company Pirelli returned to the bond market on Monday for the first time since its IPO. With no other investment grade deals in the market, the new five year transaction enjoyed strong investor demand and 40bp of tightening from initial price thoughts.

China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC) bagged $1bn on Wednesday from an exchangeable bond linked to Postal Savings Bank of China’s stock, which has rallied this year. But the deal was more than just an opportunistic trade — it used a relatively rare structure in the equity-linked market, writes Jonathan Breen.

French video game publisher Ubisoft Entertainment sold its first corporate bond on Thursday following a roadshow earlier in the week. The meetings in Paris, London and Germany helped the publisher of games including Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance build a whole new following.

Corporate bond investors were treated to a relative feast of issuance on Wednesday following a meagre €850m of supply in the first two days of the week. A trio of higher beta names offered a variety of tenors and spreads for investors to choose from.

Public sector borrowers wrapped up a trio of short end dollar trades on Tuesday, with the tightest issuer able to grind in pricing to the lowest level from an SSA this year and the higher yielding names finding ample demand despite ending up at similar spreads. SSA bankers are confident that the strong conditions will also ring true at the long end for KfW, which has mandated for its first 10 year dollar benchmark in nearly three years.

On Tuesday, Italgas was the latest issuer to benefit from the lack of corporate bond supply so far in 2018. Investors, starved of paper, have caused order books to be multiple times oversubscribed and issuers have benefitted from tight pricing as a result.

Indonesian construction services company Wijaya Karya sealed a Rph5.4tr ($404.7m) offshore rupiah bond on Monday, a key deal in the opening up of the Komodo bond market.

Korea Southern Power Co (Kospo) has priced the first public dollar bond from South Korea amid a US government shutdown. But the 144A deal saw little fallout from that. Easing tensions on the Korean peninsula, the quality of its credit and demand for short-dated paper ensured investor interest.

Public sector borrowers are pouring into the three year part of the dollar curve after a series of issuers printed strong deals in the tenor last week.

On Monday, Italian tyre company Pirelli returned to the bond market for the first time since its IPO. With no other investment grade deals in the market, the new five year transaction saw strong investor demand and 40bp of tightening from initial price thoughts.

Investec plc, the South African bank’s UK branch, has signed a loan for $450m — growing to more than double its launch amount of $200m after being three times subscribed.

Instone Real Estate Group, the German housebuilder, plans to go public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in February, having filed an intention to float document on Monday.