Citi

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Australian dollars will remain the non-core currency of choice for SSAs and high-grade issuers following a curve-extending deal from the Australian sovereign on Wednesday, said bankers.

Fund managers and capital markets bankers blamed the lack of liquidity in bond markets, caused by bank regulation, for exacerbating price swings in credit markets and US Treasuries this week. This kind of volatility might just be something investors have to get used to, they warned, writes Tessa Wilkie.

The syndication of German pharmaceutical company Merck’s $15.6bn of loans for its acquisition of US life sciences firm Sigma-Aldrich was the latest in a series of transatlantic M&A related loans for investment grade German borrowers to close oversubscribed. Banks have plenty of cash and are keen to use it, but a trend for large tickets and slim banking groups means there may not be enough to go around.

Market volatility and a sharp downturn in sentiment kept FIG supply light this week, with just Deutsche Bank choosing to access the market in euros, tapping a seven year note. Expectations are for supply to stay light given the sudden sell off across many asset classes that followed weak US data on Wednesday afternoon.

A pair of dollar deals in the sovereign, supranational and agency sector failed to cross the line this week, coming on a day when turbulent US Treasury markets made book building tough. Issuers lining up deals for next week may have to be prepared to pay more of a new issue premium because of this week’s tricky conditions.

German bearings firm Schaeffler has priced its €1.77bn-equivalent term loan ‘B’ at the wide end of its guidance range in response to weak demand from the US market.

Asian insurers are making their presence felt in the international debt market after Korean Reinsurance (Korean Re) became the fourth name to issue a bond in six weeks. While market participants are quick to point out that the deals are unrelated, they predict more is coming from the sector as Asia makes the step up to Solvency II, write Virginia Furness and Rev Hui.

German ball bearing producer Schaeffler has priced its €1.77bn-equivalent term loan ‘B’ at the wide end of its guidance range, in response to weak demand from the US market.

A portion of Tata Steel’s $5.6bn borrowing, which has been in senior syndication since July, finally launched into general on October 13, with five banks joining the original 11 leads. The money will be used to refinance the outstanding portion of the debt Tata took to fund its acquisition of Europe’s Corus Group.

Indonesian conglomerate Astra International is close to winding up a $300m club loan with eight lenders.

Citi has expanded its Asia coverage desks to keep up with the growing number of multinational corporations from the region.