Citi

The first deal of the September rush set an impressive bar for a rush of borrowing from its peers in the commodities sector. Russia's Severstal pulled off an $800m five year bond priced flat to its curve, achieving the lowest yield ever for a corporate from the region.

Chinese real estate developer Longfor Group Holdings raised $850m from a 10 year bond on Monday, taking advantage of a recent ratings upgrade that led to a rally in its secondary price.

Corporate bond issuers made full use of the last few days before the European Central Bank's much-anticipated announcement on monetary policy on Thursday. Despite the hectic activity of the past two weeks, investors were still oversubscribing deals two or three times.

KfW mandated banks for its longest ever dollar green bond on Monday, while the Inter-American Development Bank is taking indications of interest for its inaugural Sofr-linked floating rate note.

Severstal, a Russian steel manufacturer, hit screens on Monday morning with a five year dollar benchmark.

A new sustainable finance product, which has the potential for huge growth, was launched on Thursday when Enel, the Italian electricity and gas company, issued the first bond in which the interest rate can be altered during the term of the debt, based on the borrower’s sustainability performance.

Six Greater China borrowers, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Macau) and an unrated property developer, have wooed bond investors to their new dollar deals.

Apple and Walt Disney starred in the US corporate bond market this week, as the market roared back from the Labor Day holiday with a huge stack of deals that bankers said had broken the record for a single week in the US corporate and financial institution bond market.

Bank of Ireland was unable to complete the sale of a tier two transaction this week, after the UK Parliament descended in chaos. Bond buyers have by and large taken a pragmatic approach during Brexit negotiations, but market participants said that on this occasion the Irish issuer had “misjudged” how nervous investors were, writes David Freitas.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

The frenzy of investment grade corporate bond issuance in Europe intensified on Thursday, when eight companies came to market, issuing a total of €6.6bn of paper in euros. That brought the total for the first four days of this week to over €20bn. Despite the heavy supply, issuers have found sufficient demand to support their notes.

Emerging market issuers are moving to print in the bond markets as investors’ desperation for positive yield hits fever pitch. With some borrowers looking to refinance maturities falling due in 2020 and 2021, a pivot towards bonds from loans, and Gulf Cooperation Council sovereigns rumoured to be making moves, some bankers say this year could challenge the record for annual CEEMEA volume.