Citi

Saudi Arabia was set to sell its second ever bond in euros on Wednesday. The bond, which will allow the kingdom to further diversify its investor base, is expected to tighten considerably from initial price thoughts.

SK Holdings pocketed W1.12tr ($1bn) from a block trade of SK Biopharmaceuticals, but the deal hit the South Korean drug company’s share price hard, sending it tumbling more than 17%.

KommuneKredit mandated banks on Tuesday to follow its Nordic peer into the 10 year part of the euro curve, in what will only be the second public deal in the euro SSA primary market this week.

EP Infrastructure, the Czech Republic-headquartered energy infrastructure group, launched a euro bond on Tuesday. By midday, books had almost reached €3bn.

Saudi Arabia mandated banks on Tuesday to arrange a bond in euros, just a month after it last entered the market to raise dollars. The "opportunistic" bond will enable the kingdom to achieve tight pricing and diversification, market participants said.

EnBW, the German electrical utility, and the financing arm of a Dutch truck company, DAF Paccar Financial, hit screens with highly rated euro trades on Monday. Central bank bond buying higher than forecast, pushed investors to oversubscribe the deals even though the spreads on offer were thin.

EP Infrastructure, the Czech Republic-headquartered energy infrastructure group has mandated banks to syndicate a bond in euros. Though much of supply from the CEE region last year came from sovereigns, market participants believe now is a good time for corporates to issue in debt markets.

The SSA sterling market had been deserted for two weeks thanks to a hostile cross-currency basis swap, but KfW returned on Thursday with a £500m tap.

There were flashbacks to last month’s Spanish syndication in the bond market this week as Italy made an emphatic start to the Draghi era in the BTP market. The borrower shed billions of orders on Tuesday after aggressively pricing its first syndication since the appointment of the ex-ECB chief as the country’s prime minister. Burhan Khadbai reports.

This week was the busiest of the year so far for bank senior supply in euros, as issuers took advantage of strong market conditions after posting full year results.

Rabobank found good demand for a 12 year senior bond in the euro market this week, as it took advantage of rise in rates to land at a record tight spread.

Landsbankinn sold its first green bond on Thursday, a €300m senior deal, becoming the first Icelandic financial issuer to print debt in the format.