Citi

The Nordic Investment Bank’s $1bn no-grow five year passed easily through the market on Tuesday. Syndicate bankers away from the trade said the market is so receptive that any top tier dollar trade at that maturity is going to succeed.

Baxter International, the US medical equipment company, chose the euro market on Friday for its first bond issue of any kind for two years. The €1.5bn deal followed another euro issue in 2017. Not since 2016 has Baxter issued in dollars.

Dollars burst into life on Monday with Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) and FMO opening books, as bankers away from the deals point to the ‘EIB effect’ in making the market too hot to resist.

City of Paris mandated banks on Monday for a new 20 year bond that will extend its curve to 2039.

A hail of high yield and leveraged loan deals hit the European market this week, making it seem like investors and bankers were unaware of the angst permeating equity markets since President Donald Trump decided to up the ante in his trade poker game with China. Not every deal was a blowout, however — United Group priced its PIK note wide of guidance and Virgin Media failed to tighten.

Arabian Centres Company (ACC), the owner and operator of Saudi retail malls, has priced its IPO at the bottom of its original range, winning local support for one of the largest deals from the Kingdom in years.

Belgian brewer Anheuser Busch InBev has taken the first step toward floating its Asia Pacific operations on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

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European corporate bond investors showed they were hungry for paper on Thursday, despite the gloom infecting equity markets this week about the prospect of a restart to the China-US trade war. A flurry of issuers came to the market, hot from roadshows, and got plenty of over-subscription while slashing their spreads by 20bp to 30bp.

Gold Fields, a South Africa-headquartered mining company, sold its $1bn dual tranche bond on Wednesday at a spread that looked historically tight to comparable issuer, AngloGold. It attracted $3bn of orders despite national elections on the same day.

Two African borrowers are set to hit the road for dollar bonds, extending a run of deals from the continent after a slow start to the year.

The strength of corporate bond demand, after falls in stockmarkets engendered by the US's hardened stance on trade talks with China, will be tested in the US on Wednesday by a $20bn issue for IBM. In Europe, the test could come on Thursday, since a handful of issuers finished roadshows on Wednesday.