Commerzbank

China’s Ministry of Finance has raised €4bn from a three tranche deal, returning to the euro market after 15 years away. The bond is expected to encourage Chinese issuers from across the credit spectrum to tap the euro market, writes Addison Gong.

China’s Ministry of Finance has raised €4bn from a three tranche deal, returning to the euro market after a 15 year layoff. Bankers think the deal will encourage Chinese issuers from across the credit spectrum to come to the euro market.

A flurry of new deals this week had issuers having to compete for investors’ attention. Bankers said that higher yielding deals were much easier to sell, with non-preferred senior bonds from Bankia and Lloyds Banking Group proving more popular than a tighter print from Belfius.

Germany’s E.On came with a €500m no-grow 2031 trade on Thursday, as corporate bond syndicate bankers said it was still too early to judge the scale of the European Central Bank’s bond buying programme.

The People’s Republic of China has caused a stir among DCM bankers in Asia and Europe with plans to return to the euro bond market for the first time since 2004. While expectations on opposite sides of the world are starkly different, what is clear is that the sovereign’s deal will be less about the pricing itself and more about making a statement. Addison Gong and Burhan Khadbai report.

Gestamp, the Spanish automotive engineering company, has closed its Schuldschein with indications of a final size at about €180m. Market players believe that Spain and Italy may be the next key sources of growth in the years to come.

Germany’s Daimler and the Netherlands’ KPN were out for euro bonds on Wednesday. High grade corporate bond players kept an eagle eye on the trades to see what shape the European Central Bank’s bond buying programme would take this time round.

Germany’s E.On has signed a sustainability-linked syndicated loan, in a deal that moves towards unifying the capital structure of the electricity company after its €20.42bn Innogy acquisition.

Commerzbank, Deutsche Börse and asset manager MEAG have made further progress in adopting blockchain technology in post-trade services.

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) met investors this week to discuss a debut sale of additional tier one (AT1) bonds. Changes in regulation are prompting issuers to seek new deals in the asset class to optimise their capital layers.

German home improvement and garden supplies chain Hornbach issued €250m of senior unsecured notes on Thursday, for a coupon of just 3.25%. While the retail sector in general makes investors wary and Germany is lurching towards recession, investors showed confidence in the home improvement market.

After years of whitepapers, R&D and proofs of concept, the long prophesied new age of technology in primary debt capital markets is at long last about to arrive.