Credit Suisse

The Swiss bond market welcomed Russian Railways back to the market after a five year absence this week.

UK telecoms group Virgin Media was in the market for a £200m add-on of its 2024 receivable financing notes on Monday. By Wednesday, it had sold £450m of the deal, proving that demand is not restricted to the high yield debt market for euros, where three more deals were under way.

The $1.5bn Hong Kong IPO of Chinese insurtech firm ZhongAn Online Property and Casualty Insurance Co is set to be a splashy affair, with the punchy valuations on offer stirring debate among ECM bankers. But the leads are already predicting a successful outcome. John Loh and Jonathan Breen report.

RYB Education’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange is off to a strong start, with the $140m deal covered on the first day of bookbuilding.

Lone Star Funds, the US private equity group, has completed the first selldown of shares in Neinor Homes, the Spanish property developer, since its €775m IPO in March, and managed to sell a whopping 27% stake.

Extendable maturity covered bonds are looked on more favourably by issuers and rating agencies than they used to be. But some think issuers should have limited power to extend maturities at their discretion.

Investors have been receptive to ZhongAn Online Property and Casualty Insurance Co’s $1.5bn IPO in Hong Kong despite the punchy valuations on tow, said bankers.

Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever printed the fifth sterling corporate bond deal in three days on Monday. The £500m dual tranche deal offered investors seven and 12 year tenors.

A full €2.3bn of bond offerings from seven borrowers hit screens on Monday in the European high yield bond market, following last week's more than €3bn of new bonds despite fund inflows turning negative.

Russian Railways will meet investors on Wednesday to discuss its first Swiss franc bond in five years.

A $575m loan for Twin Star Mauritius, an entity under mining giant Vedanta Resources, entered general syndication on Monday with five banks at the helm.

China’s RYB Education is slated to open books on Thursday for its $100m IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, said bankers leading the trade.