Credit Suisse

Chinese property issuers led the reopening of Asia’s offshore bond market following a week-long holiday in the Mainland to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Investors responded to the new deals with enthusiasm.

Latam Airlines returned to the bond market for the first time in almost two years, printing $600m of seven year paper.

Demand for corporate bonds is strong but it is at its strongest for green and hybrid debt, especially for deals that combine both qualities. On Tuesday, Spanish utility Iberdrola found similar demand for green hybrids to that which Engie and EDP had benefited from in January, and market participants are starting to revise their issuance forecasts for the asset class.

Barclays and Rothschild are being legally pursued by Scor, which claims they breached confidence and trade secrets after the insurer rejected a merger offer from compatriot Covéa. But Scor praised Credit Suisse, claiming it had refused to join those two banks’ actions.

Chinese electric car company Nio made a splash in the US convertible bond market this week, raising $650m from its debut issuance and using a call spread feature to engineer a tasty premium. Jonathan Breen reports.

Nio, the Chinese electric car company, has launched bookbuilding for a convertible bond that will be worth as much as $650m, according to a source close to the deal.

French insurance firm Scor said on Tuesday that it was looking to take legal action against compatriot Covéa, as well as Barclays and Rothschild, in relation to a rejected acquisition proposal. Covéa had announced earlier in the day that it was no longer looking to combine with Scor.

Fosun International, China Grand Automotive Services and China Molybdenum Co rushed out to the offshore bond market on Monday, helping kick-start a rush of issuance before Chinese New Year.

There was a wall of supply from Chinese property companies at the start of the week. Road King Infrastructure and Yuzhou Properties brought a pair of callable four year bonds, but Jingrui Holdings and Fantasia Holdings Group both stuck to the very short-end of the curve.

Greentown China Holdings raised $400m from a perpetual bond sale on the back of an impressive $5.6bn order book, as investors rushed into the deal for its pricing and structure.

Leveraged loan bankers in Europe speak of a growing pipeline, but the only deal priced this week was a small loan extension from Wittur, the German maker of lift parts.

Logistics real estate developer ESR Cayman turned to the Singapore dollar market this week to bring down its cost of funding, adding S$150m ($110m) to its coffers.