Citi

Malaysia’s equity capital market is set for a dramatic rebound after an exceptionally quiet 2018. It promises to offer those investors that have been underweight on the country for a long time plenty of attractive opportunities to put their money to work, writes Christie Ou.

Anta Sports Products has launched its €2.2bn loan to back the acquisition of Amer Sports Oyj into general syndication, with HSBC joining the bookrunning group.

Appetite for eurozone sovereigns is showing no signs of slowing down after Ireland and Portugal joined Belgium this week in scoring their largest ever syndication order books. Several other borrowers sold euro trades on Wednesday, with more supply expected this week as the pipeline has “accelerated” ahead of next week’s parliamentary vote on the UK’s Brexit deal.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Wednesday became the third public sector borrower to issue an inaugural Sonia-linked bond in 2019, with the deal marking the borrower’s largest sterling bond to date.

After a run of triple-B rated corporate bond issuance, A-rated names have returned to the market and paid lower premiums than the higher beta issuers had, but 10.75 years remains the longest tenor to date.

Turkey has come to market for a 10 year dollar benchmark, reasserting its status as one of emerging market bonds' most frequent borrowers after a turbulent 2018.

Saudi Arabia is expected to print large tranches for its new 2029 and 2050 bond issue but will need to pay up for them in its first deal since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the country's consulate in Istanbul last year.

Yapi Kredi, the Turkish bank, has set the pricing for its additional tier one bond though eschewing a “traditional bookbuild process”.

Hong Kong’s Dah Sing Bank priced a popular $225m Basel III-compliant tier two deal, starting the market on a strong note in a year where more than $24bn of capital bonds from Asia are coming up for call.

Citi has named two new co-heads for the debt capital markets syndicate desk in Asia Pacific, succeeding James Arnold who is taking up another position within the bank.

The European Investment Bank and Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten showed the strength of the dollar market on Tuesday as they sparked the sector into life for 2019 with benchmarks offering minimal concession. Another pair of SSAs are hoping to emulate that success on Wednesday.

Belgium and KfW received well oversubscribed order books for 10 year euro benchmarks on Tuesday, with several public sector borrowers set to follow in the euro market this week.