BNP Paribas

The ebullient tone that characterised the first three weeks of September has faded as investors begin to fret over the US presidential election on November 8, but there is still life in the SSA market.

A flurry of equity-linked bond transactions were launched in France this week, including an exchangeable from Crédit Agricole into Eurazeo shares, a rare hybrid perpetual deal from Eramet, the mining company, and a similar €160m buyback by Assystem. And in Spain, Indra Systemas got cracking with its own refinancing exchangeable.

A pair of public sector borrowers were able to sell tightly priced euro deals on Tuesday, with another two trades likely to follow on Wednesday.

Spanish natural gas utility Enagás is in talks with its relationship banks to refinance a €1.5bn revolving credit facility.

Shui On Development made its return to the international bond market on Monday after almost two years, bagging $250m from a new three year unrated offering.

China National BlueStar navigated a crowded primary market on Monday, netting $1.1bn from a dual trancher on the back of an impressive $4bn order book.

McDonald’s offered a Sfr400m ($413.6m) eight year trade to the Swiss market on Monday, closing the deal with an order book exceeding Sfr1.5bn and tightening pricing by more than the lead managers had expected.

A French agency is set to bring a euro benchmark in the shortest tenor seen since the end of the summer, while a Dutch agency is about to sell its longest dated syndication ever in the currency.

German utility company ENBW completed a $300m dollar hybrid bond deal on Monday, attracting 119 Asian and European accounts eager to increase their holdings of the product, despite volatility in euro markets.

IMCD, the Rotterdam-headquartered speciality chemicals firm, is marketing a €125m Schuldschein with tenors of five and seven years. The deal could grow beyond the launch size if demand is sufficient.

High Speed Rail Finance, the financing vehicle for the High Speed 1 (HS1) project — the train line between London and the channel tunnel to France — said on Monday it was planning on issuing £314m of private placement notes.

Three Chinese issuers went out to woo investors on Monday to get ahead of a potential boom in bond supply after announcements from the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan last week.