Crédit Agricole

KfW made a strong return to the benchmark green bond market on Tuesday, taking advantage of a more attractive pricing dynamic for green bonds over conventional issuance compared to earlier in the year.

Russian steel producer Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has raised a €600m syndicated loan, as experts say that the continued presence of Russians in the market during the crisis is down to the resilience they were forced to acquire after years of sanctions.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co has added to the growing presence of Chinese financial credits in the international debt market with a $500m deal.

A small deal size and investment grade ratings worked in GS Caltex Corp’s favour on Monday, allowing the South Korean oil refiner to price a tight $300m bond.

KfW will lead the charge in the euro public sector bond market on Tuesday with a €3bn green bond that will match its biggest ever deal in the format. Eurofima and the State of Berlin are also preparing to bring bonds to the euro market.

The MTN market expects a busy summer in Asia as investors look to make up for time lost to the coronavirus pandemic at the start of the year. In Europe, things are starting to slow down, however, there are signs that the credit market could open up over the coming weeks.

Hexaware Technologies, an Indian software company majority owned by Baring Private Equity Asia, has mandated nine banks for a $600m take-private loan.

The European Commission’s best practice guidelines for the financial sector in handling the coronavirus crisis may challenge the safety mechanisms embedded in covered bonds, which have become fundamentally overvalued — especially in countries like Italy where payment holidays have been widely taken up — thereby instigating a sell recommendation from analysts at Barclays.

Dollar bonds sold by Bank of Communications and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China widened in the aftermarket on Tuesday after both firms took a tight approach to pricing.

Crédit Agricole won an appeal against the European Central Bank on Wednesday against fines levied against the treatment of some of its instruments as common equity tier one (CET1) because the central bank had provided “inadequate reasons” for penalising the French lender.

Rating: Aa2/AA/AA

Following the sale of its third syndication of the year this week — a €3bn inflation-linked bond — France does not expect to bring any more public benchmarks in 2020.