Citi

The Middle East has provided the only source of CEEMEA supply so far this week. Bahrain bounced back to hog the spotlight, returning to tap $600m of bonds less than a week after an unexpected Standard & Poor’s downgrade led the issuer to cancel a previous $750m attempt. Meanwhile, yet another Latin America sovereign came to the euro market.

The hidden depth of demand in Europe’s corporate bond market was made amply clear on Monday, when Vodafone trounced market expectations that it would issue a €3bn bond — itself a large and bullish transaction — by raising €6bn.

Bank of China Hong Kong sneaked in to the bond market on Tuesday with a triple-tranche dollar deal in the midst of several other well flagged competing transactions. But the Chinese lender raised a hefty $2bn, which bankers said proved that it is one of the strongest credits in the region.

Any fears that investors might be nervous about sterling bonds in the run-up to the UK’s referendum on European Union membership eased with a pair of deals on Tuesday.

NL Financial Investments, the Dutch state agency, has named bookrunners for the IPO of insurer ASR, having already chosen the global co-ordinators earlier this year.

Saipem’s unfortunate €3.5bn capital raise could have wide-ranging consequences for other firms desperately in need of fresh cash to weather the commodities downturn.

India’s National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC) ended an absence of more than a year from the international bond market this week with a tightly priced transaction that left little money on the table for investors.

South Korea's Netmarble has shortlisted a trio of international banks and five local houses to lead its IPO, which could raise as much as W2tr ($1.6bn).

Khazanah Nasional started taking orders for its first Islamic bond in dollars on Tuesday, while Bank of China’s Hong Kong branch launched bookbuilding for a triple tranche senior dollar deal.

With the year not two months old, seven leading equity capital markets banks have got saddled with what is understood to be at least €50m each of Saipem shares, after the rump of its rights issue failed to sell.

A plunge in sterling’s value on Monday after the UK government picked a date for the country’s European Union membership is unlikely to stop SSAs adding to a record breaking year in the currency so far, said bankers.

Tata Steel has received a new commitment at the senior level for its $1.5bn refinancing, with banks yet to join in general syndication.