Citi

Korea Development Bank (KDB) snagged tight pricing for its $1.5bn dual-tranche bond, completing one of the first deals of the year in Asia. Some accounts stayed away citing expensive pricing and geopolitical concerns, but investors still thronged to the credit, viewing it as a defensive play amid high volatility.

The European corporate bond market is preparing for another dose of quantitative easing this year and with the US Federal Reserve having finally pressed the rate button, Ross Lancaster explores what the side effects of central bank policy divergence will be.

Middle Eastern loans burst open in the fourth quarter of 2015, with deals aplenty for corporates, banks and sovereigns. The deal flow will not ebb this year, but pricing will rise and international lenders will play a bigger role, replacing local lenders. Elly Whittaker reports.

The Inter-American Development Bank is the latest issuer to enter a red hot dollar market, after KommuneKredit and the Asian Development Bank raised money on Wednesday.

After the second half of last year proved a real headache for primary issuance, participants in the European IPO market are readying themselves to brave markets that could be just as choppy in the first half of 2016. As Olivier Holmey reports, some of 2015’s innovations are likely to become widespread.

A $275m five year loan for US-based private equity firms General Atlantic and Warburg Pincus received “massive oversubscription” from a small group of Middle Eastern banks hungry for yield as their cost of funding rises, according to a banker on the deal.

Oman is finalising a $1bn sovereign loan and could sign as early as tomorrow (Thursday), according to a banker on the deal.

Hong Kong real estate giant Swire Properties and the Korea Development Bank have launched the first investment grade bonds from Asia for 2016, opening books for dollar-denominated transactions on January 6.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten started January with a bang, roaring out of the blocks with an oversubscribed book on the year’s first euro deal, and printing its largest ever 10 year benchmark in the currency.

The European Investment Bank blew the doors off the sterling market with a record breaking deal on Tuesday, and two other issuers quickly followed.

Kuwaiti petrochemicals firm Equate has signed $6bn of loans, with a range of lenders from different regions joining the five underwriting banks.

A $300m borrowing for Iris World Enterprises, an affiliate of Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, has been signed among eight lenders less than a month after launching into syndication.