Citi

Investors flocked to African Development Bank’s Fight Covid-19 social bond on Thursday, allowing the supranational to print its own largest ever dollar deal, and its largest ever social bond.

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US companies have smashed the all time record for bond issuance this month, as they plundered the dollar market in a headlong dash for liquidity that continued on Thursday, even though a darker record was broken: 3.3m new unemployment claims, more than four times the previous highest.

The Inter-American Development Bank on Thursday started marketing a five year sustainable development bond in Global format as it looks to become third SSA borrower to jump into the dollar market this week. But SSA issuers that fund in euros will unlikely be able to mirror join the party.

New issue concessions have tumbled in the high grade corporate bond market today. French industrial gases company Air Liquide has rewritten this week's rules by pricing a bond through its own curve on Thursday.

The Republic of Austria and the African Development Bank announced new bond transactions on Wednesday which will be used to provide emergency financing in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Kuwait's Equate Petrochemical stuck its head above the parapet this week, holding investor calls for a triple-tranche bond issue.

Europe’s corporate bond new issue market burst back into life on Friday after a nine day coma with two emphatic, big, generously priced deals from impeccable issuers — exactly the pattern of issuance, although on a smaller scale, that the US market has produced on three days this week. Engie and Unilever raised €4.5bn between them, most of it from investors working at home amid coronavirus quarantines.

Germany's Covestro and the UK's 3i have both signed new revolving credit facilities with terms that were agreed before the Covid-19 pandemic sent markets plunging, but lenders said that new deals will have far higher margins.

That nine US companies and banks should launch bonds the day after a 12% fall in the S&P 500 index, the worst since 1987, is astonishing, but probably shows that companies are anxious to bank large quantities of cash in case markets get worse. The barrage of issuance comes despite core fixed income markets such as Treasuries, swaps and commercial paper being under strain.

Citi has hired industry veteran Loretta Ko as head of Hong Kong financial institutions, within the corporate banking division, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

India’s Tata Steel and Birla Carbon have decided not to syndicate their chunky loans, amid reluctance from the bookrunners to sell down their positions in a slowing market for deals.