Citi

Several public sector borrowers tapped the socially responsible investment (SRI) market this week, with more deals expected in February, before what many analysts expect will be a record year for the asset class.

Harley Davidson made heavy weather of strong US bond market conditions on Thursday after a dovish Fed and a month-long rally in spreads appeared to set the dollar market up for a strong run of issuance in February.

A quiet week for corporate bond issuance may have helped BMW Finance achieve tight pricing on Thursday, but selling its largest ever deal with new issue premiums in single digits was still an excellent outcome when compared to the premiums being paid at the start of the month.

Asia’s sustainability market took a big step forward this week when Kookmin Bank priced a Basel III-compliant tier two bond with a sustainability label — the first of its kind in the region. Morgan Davis reports.

Chinese electric car company Nio made a splash in the US convertible bond market this week, raising $650m from its debut issuance and using a call spread feature to engineer a tasty premium. Jonathan Breen reports.

Dubai Investments Park Development Company has postponed its planned dollar five year sukuk.

Indonesian power company Lestari Banten Energi priced a $775m project bond on Tuesday, sealing the first such Asian deal of the year after months of preparation.

Larsen and Toubro has kicked off a two-day offer-for-sale in subsidiary L&T Technology Services, eyeing proceeds of up to Rp9bn ($126.3m).

Nio, the Chinese electric car company, has launched bookbuilding for a convertible bond that will be worth as much as $650m, according to a source close to the deal.

Greece’s highly anticipated return to the public bond markets on Tuesday met with a strong reception from investors. With up to €4.5bn more of benchmark bonds to issue in 2019, Greece is expected to return to the markets for a second syndication this year, which bankers say could be in the 10 year part of the curve. Cyprus will look to follow up on Greece’s success after setting out plans to roadshow a euro transaction in February.

‘Tier two’ and ‘sustainability’ are labels that have never previously been combined in Asia. At least not until this week, when Kookmin Bank raised $450m from a Basel III-compliant deal.

Egypt is revamping its capital markets presence, lining up a debut in the green bond market, a first deal in an Asian currency, and dollar and euro benchmarks all by the end of its fiscal year in June.