Currencies

Telecom Italia attracted €4.5bn of orders on Tuesday, which was no mean feat, having to contend with a €4bn four-tranche Orange deal in the market on the same day, but also the uncertainty surrounding the Italian government and its budget hanging over the country’s economy. This, combined with the company’s Ba1/BB+/BBB- ratings, meant it had to offer what research house CreditSights saw as a 90bp premium to its secondary curve for the new 5.25 year deal.

With €24bn of orders placed for just over €11bn of new corporate bonds this week, the investment grade corporate bond market has reopened for the year with a full-throated roar. The size of demand will give encouragement to other borrowers but they will have noted the higher spreads and new issue premiums required to raise bond funding compared to last year, writes Nigel Owen

Israel rounded out an immensely successful opening week of 2019 for emerging market sovereign bond issues with its largest deal ever. The borrower raised €2.5bn of 10 and 30 year debt, pushing out its curve and printing at its tightest ever spread for a euro deal.

French toll road operator APRR started its funding plans earlier than previous years when it sold a €500m nine year deal on Thursday. The company’s November deal was its only transaction in 2018, but even in busier years it has waited until May to get started.

Appetite for eurozone sovereigns is showing no signs of slowing down after Ireland and Portugal joined Belgium this week in scoring their largest ever syndication order books. Several other borrowers sold euro trades on Wednesday, with more supply expected this week as the pipeline has “accelerated” ahead of next week’s parliamentary vote on the UK’s Brexit deal.

When it failed to notify investors it would call its 6.5% hybrid corporate bonds in December, Italian energy company Enel said it still intended to offer noteholders the opportunity to redeem the notes at par via a tender offer. It confirmed the tender offer earlier this week, but it is difficult to see why any investor would take it up.

After a run of triple-B rated corporate bond issuance, A-rated names have returned to the market and paid lower premiums than the higher beta issuers had, but 10.75 years remains the longest tenor to date.

Israel hit the market on Wednesday with a dual tranche euro deal, looking to test demand at the long end of the yield curve. The country’s reputation as a quality issuer appears to have carried it through.

At first look, a high new issue premium makes a corporate bond deal look cheap for investors. However, the negative effect that premium can have on an issuer’s outstanding bonds can prove to outweigh the cheapness of the new deal for an issuer’s long term backers.

Haitong International Securities has returned to the loan market for a HK$13.8bn ($1.7bn) refinancing led by a 16-strong group of mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.

Belgium and KfW received well oversubscribed order books for 10 year euro benchmarks on Tuesday, with several public sector borrowers set to follow in the euro market this week.

First it was a pair of car finance issuers. Then came a pair of utilities. And on Tuesday it was a pair of telecoms companies that came to the corporate bond market. But the latest couple really got investors revved up with more than €16.5bn of orders placed.