BNP Paribas

Pricing on a $1.5bn borrowing for Indonesian state-owned oil company Pertamina has become a talking point among loans bankers. Some believe that the loan will not have an easy time in syndication as the cost of funds at Japanese and Taiwanese lenders creeps up, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

The province of Chaco, one of the poorest in Argentina, sold $250m of bonds with an average life of seven years on Wednesday and then saw them edge upwards on the break despite scepticism from market participants about the borrower’s credit quality.

Shell made a quick move from publishing earnings results to issuing a dual tranche bond on Wednesday, the euro market’s only investment grade corporate deal of the week.

The province of Chaco is set to provide a test of demand for Argentine credit with a dollar issue on Wednesday, as bankers and investors acknowledged that favourable market conditions gave the province a good chance of a successful deal despite challenging fundamentals.

Wisdom Education International Holdings Co is looking to list in Hong Kong via sole sponsor BNP Paribas, filing an A1 on Tuesday.

BNP Paribas and HSBC followed Barclays into the sterling market on Monday, revealing opportunities in the currency following last week’s Bank of England meeting as spreads grind tighter and book sizes grow.

Indonesia’s Pertamina is expected to launch its long awaited $1.5bn five year financing into general syndication this week, punctuating a quiet period for the southeast Asian loan market.

Louis Dreyfus Commodities Asia has wrapped up a $600m revolver after overwhelming demand allowed it to allocate the full greenshoe to banks, raising the total amount by $100m.

Vodafone continued to throw primary supply at European corporate bond markets on Friday, printing its third bond in two weeks as it issued a £1bn 40 year deal.

Petit Forestier, the French refrigerated vehicle leasing firm, closed syndication of its €525m acquisition loan earlier this week with oversubscribed commitments from lenders.

BNP Paribas has hired a banker from Nomura to join its FIG DCM team.

Pricing rather than size was the focus for public sector borrowers in the dollar market this week, although overly aggressive pricing was not the reason for one issuer having to pull back from bringing a tap issue.