BNP Paribas

Insurance and pension fund demand is likely to drive further 20 year benchmarks after this week’s triumphant €5bn syndication from Belgium, SSA bankers argued this week. New appetite for the rare maturity particularly reflects the Solvency II directive, under which insurers’ holdings will be assessed using mark-to-market values up to 20 years, writes Craig McGlashan.

The high yield bond flurry by Spanish issuers carried on this week, with strong issues from two debut borrowers. Solid demand allowed Grupo Isolux Corsan to increase its bond by €200m, while Grupo Antolin-Irausa accelerated its deal by a day.

Bank of Ireland returned to the covered bond market on Tuesday to issue its fifth deal since November 2012, when it returned after the Irish sovereign debt crisis. The transaction was well oversubscribed with plenty of orders, but less spectacularly so than on previous issues.

John Deere Bank, the financing arm of the US agricultural machinery group, launched a rare five year floating rate note on Wednesday that found strong demand, as European investors warmed to a structure that will protect them against interest rate rises.

Avinor, the Norwegian state airports group rated A1/AA-, launched its first euro bond on Thursday, garnering demand that reflected its rarity as a proxy for one of the world’s strongest sovereign credits, which does not issue any foreign currency debt.

Corporates globally have been buying target forwards and accumulators on the renminbi against the US dollar in expectation that the planned appreciation of the Chinese unit will continue, according to foreign exchange structurers.

The tier two market sprung back to life this week, with veteran credit BNP Paribas pulling in as big an order book as the market has come to expect. But at the other end of the spectrum, German real estate lender Aareal Bank pulled in a smaller but equally impressive amount of orders for its debut tier two benchmark, with international investors piling in on top of the issuer’s domestic fan base.

Indian telecoms company Bharti Airtel sold its debut Swiss franc deal on Thursday morning, a six year note. Strong demand allowed the issuer to sell the largest ever Swiss franc deal from the country.

Chinese theme park operator and developer Haichang Holdings priced its $316m IPO in the middle of its indicative range, amid volatile markets and investor demand that was highly price sensitive.

SIHL taps lenders for HK$4bn — Lenovo seeks $1bn acquisition loan

State Bank of India is due to launch a $390m loan into syndication soon, increasing the size from the original $300m. At one point the loan was on track to be $420m, but this was scuppered when one lender dropped out of the top level.

Agribusiness Wii, a fully-owned subsidiary of Wilmar International, has wrapped up syndication after increasing the final loan to $2.49bn from the launch size of $1.75bn.