Citi

Mergers and acquisitions are set to be an important driver of corporate bond issuance this autumn, as deal mandates start to build up.

The sovereign, supranational and agency sector shot out of its summer snooze on Wednesday, as the first benchmark sized deals in more than three weeks drew bulging books and bankers tipped more mandates to hit screens later in the day. Investors with cash to put to work, a lower level of upcoming SSA supply than the last few years and unexpectedly dovish comments by the European Central Bank president late last week were all contributing to a heavily bid market, said SSA bankers.

Swiss Re and UniCredit are looking to be the first out of the door in the post-summer subordinated debt market, taking advantage of the recent rally in credit after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi’s comments earlier in the week gave investors confidence that the bank would enhance its measures to boost weak eurozone inflation.

BMW left rival borrowers standing in its wake with a prompt dual tranche bond issue yesterday that raised €1.75bn from a €5bn book, showing that Europe’s corporate bond market is wide open for business.

India looks set to add as much as Rp180bn ($2.97bn) to its coffers after mandating five banks to arrange a 5% stake sale in the country’s second largest listed entity – Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

Southeast Asia’s largest e-payment company, MOL Global, started the premarketing process for a $300m Nasdaq IPO on August 25 as it looks to become the first Malaysian firm to list in the US.

Three more lenders have joined the $650m club loan for Indonesian gas distribution company Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN). Allocations for the fundraising are likely to be issued by this week, said bankers.

Kangaroos and Kauris — not dollars and euros — could grab the attention of supranational agencies in the coming months, with price rather than prodigious volumes likely to be the issuers’ focus as they flirt with near-completed funding targets. Jonathan Breen and Nathan Collins report.

Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) tapped the three year leg of its dual tranche issue from May on Thursday morning, mirroring the syndication strategy it used to tap the deal’s seven year leg in July — aggressive pricing and doubling the size of the issue.

Many investors were disappointed on August 14 as a 50% increase option was not enough to satisfy demand for the sale of a block of shares in Indonesia’s Surya Citra Media. In the end, more than half were left empty handed in the Rph1.6tr ($137m) stake sale by the company’s parent, Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek).

Volvo launched the post-summer investment grade corporate bond issuance season on Thursday by doubling the size of its €300m print due 2019, which has a coupon of 2.375%.

Volvo preempted the start of the post-summer investment grade corporate bond issuance season on Thursday by doubling the size of its €300m bond due 2019.