Crédit Agricole

January’s impressive pipeline of sovereign issuance is starting to unload, as Italy and Portugal hit screens on Tuesday for their first syndications of the year.

Italian electricity supplier Enel sold its second green bond on Tuesday, repeating the timing of its first such offering in 2017, which it also sold in the second week of the year. The latest deal was the same size, but priced tighter and won a larger order book, despite printing with a longer maturity.

French telecoms operator Orange sold a new 12 year trade on Tuesday and paid a low new issue premium for the €1bn deal. The deal was one of three that priced on Tuesday, but only seven new issues for the year so far, meaning investors are keen to put their money to work.

KfW and Dexia Crédit Local are first out the blocks in what looks set to be a busy euro market for public sector borrowers this week.

A $5.5bn senior secured loan to refinance China National Chemical Corp’s (ChemChina) outstanding debt has been launched into general syndication by 16 mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.

Crédit Agricole Cariparma took advantage of the exceptionally tight spread environment to issue the first 20 year Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite (OBG) on Thursday and completed the final leg of its 2018 funding requirement at a record spread through BTPs.

UniCredit has hired a senior Crédit Agricole banker as head of markets sales.

Non-US financial institutions have favoured going to the dollar market for unsecured offerings in the first two days of the year, with Crédit Agricole looking to raise tier two capital in the currency on Wednesday.

A plethora of covered bonds issued in the first week of 2018 met with strong investor demand reflecting the fact that buyers have considerable amounts of cash to put to work.

Reliance Industries has allocated its $2.49bn multi-tranche fundraising among 31 banks, with plans to transfer in the new lenders before the end of the year, said bankers close to the trade.

The sovereign green bond market looks set to come of age next year, with some issuers confirming that they will join the likes of France in printing deals and others mulling the possibility. But the model may not fit all government borrowers — for the moment, at least. Craig McGlashan reports.

Austrian oil and gas company OMV discovered on Thursday that investors are far from finished with the investment grade corporate bond market in 2017. The strength of demand for its new nine year deal resulted in the company printing its largest ever bond.