Citi

Hong Kong Broadband Network has returned to the market after just seven months to refinance its outstanding loans. The steady downtrend in pricing for high grade borrowers prompted the move.

CFE provided a strong base for fellow Mexican quasi-sovereign Nacional Financiera to issue as soon as next week after selling a long 10 year bond on Tuesday that tightened 10bp-12bp in the two days after pricing.

A flurry of follow-on equity sales this week, mostly block trades, showed that investors still want stock, sometimes at tight discounts, even while three IPOs had to be abandoned.

Italy showed that not every investor’s fingers were burned by the sudden sell-off of its debut 50 year benchmark last week, as it printed its largest private placement in over 18 months on Monday.

JP Morgan’s chairman and chief executive was in a sympathetic mood in Washington at the Institute for International Finance last week, advocating a pause in the regulation of banks in Europe that would give them time to get on with financing the real economy.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

The European Stability Mechanism is close to deciding on the format its first dollar benchmark will be printed in, while a deal due this Friday could open up to longer dated tenors what has already been an extremely strong dollar market in the three year part of the curve.

Bawag PSK became the first bank to print a senior unsecured note offering a negative yield in Swiss market history this Wednesday. Swiss bankers wonder how the small A3 rated Austrian borrower managed to sneak into the record books.

Australia sold its largest ever bond in its longest ever maturity on Wednesday. Overseas investors swarmed towards the sovereign’s high yielding offer.

Hong Kong-listed company Li & Fung has established a $2bn medium term note and perpetual securities programme, appointing Citi and HSBC as arrangers.

Malaysia’s Tenaga Nasional sold its first dollar sukuk on Wednesday, attracting $2bn of bids as investors shrugged off concerns around the country. While participants said that that the sukuk market has always been open for borrowers, they are hoping that the power company’s deal will fuel more issuance. Addison Gong reports.

Eastern European telecoms operator RCS&RDS on Thursday printed a refinancing euro bond that was first planned in euros and Romanian leu, while it mulls a potential IPO.