Crédit Agricole

On Tuesday multi-tranche and green bond issuance returned to the investment grade corporate bond market, leaving just the hybrid asset class untouched in 2018. That didn’t last long, as Engie and Aroundtown launched new hybrid deals on Wednesday morning, one of which set new lows for the product's coupon and spread levels.

On Wednesday French toll road operator Autoroutes du Sud de la France followed the path its compatriot Orange had taken on Tuesday by issuing a €1bn 12 year new issue. Meanwhile Italian auto finance bank FCA Bank was also in the market with its first benchmark floating rate note.

The euro market is providing borrowers with superb execution — KfW gathered its largest ever book for a 10 year on Tuesday — but investors are requiring healthy new issue concessions in order to commit.

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.