BNP Paribas

In a departure from recent tactics, the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) launched its most recent bond with a generous price guidance. But the gamble paid off as the borrower attracted a record order book and got away with paying only a small concession.

Predicting the future, especially in banking, is a fool’s game. Only this time, seven years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, it is becoming increasingly obvious — thanks to regulation and technology — what banking will look like in 2020. Owen Sanderson reports.

Nineteen eurozone countries with as many legal systems, 23 officially recognised languages, 3,500 banks and just one supervisor. Sceptics say the ECB’s Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) has an impossible task. In the first year alone, it has achieved an enormous amount, but the hard work may be just beginning, writes Virginia Furness.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China New York opened bookbuilding for a dual-tranche senior dollar bond on Thursday, while Future Land Development Holdings has started wooing high yield investors with a new two year offering.

BNP Paribas sold its last remaining shares in Klépierre, the French property company, for €829m on Monday night, in an accelerated bookbuild.

A trio of SSA issuers made moves to mop up short end dollar demand on Tuesday. NRW Bank printed a $1bn bond and two others mandated for deals.

Snam, the Italian natural gas transmission company, priced a €750m eight year bond on Tuesday, its first issue since it was added to the list of bonds that the European Central Bank will buy as part of its public sector bond purchase programme, or quantitative easing.

BorgWarner, the US car engine and drivetrain maker, furthered the return of reverse Yankee bonds to Europe's corporate market on Monday, by issuing a €500m seven year no-grow deal.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) timed its first outing to the offshore bond market after a sovereign rating upgrade perfectly. This time around, the Korean policy bank kept money on the table to woo US investors rather than relying on strong onshore demand to be aggressive with pricing.

BNP Paribas’ former co-head of fixed income has resurfaced at New York headquartered M&A advisory shop Foros as a senior advisor.

The cancellation of the IPO of EDF Luminus, a Belgian subsidiary of Électricité de France, was caused by the Belgian shareholders’ unhappiness with the price available from a flotation.

FCE Bank, the UK-based European financing arm of Ford, picked its timing to perfection for its fourth bond issue of the year, on Monday.