Currencies

On Tuesday, Iren, the electricity and gas distributor, announced a new benchmark green bond alongside a tender offer for some of its outstanding bonds.

FMS Wertmanagement has announced that it will come to market for a sterling bond on Tuesday, hoping to follow Export Development Canada’s success last week.

The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will launch its fourth quarter issuance programme with a new six year benchmark, sharing investors’ screens with a 10 year deal from Dexia.

Issuers and syndicates in the corporate bond market are lining deals up for a four day week this week. The Columbus Day holiday in the US shouldn’t necessarily mean no deals in the European market, but a mixed tone to the secondary market means participants are erring on the side of caution.

After effectively a three day week this week, due to the German Unity Day holiday, syndicate desks are expecting the corporate bond market to operate for at least four days next week, after the Columbus Day holiday in the US. Some syndicate managers are saying the days off have come at a good time.

This week's scorecard looks that the funding progress of French agencies as we move into the fourth quarter.

Indian state-owned company Power Finance Corp (PFC) has sent a request for proposals for a loan of up to $300m, seven months after a failed attempt to raise $100m-equivalent from a 10 year deal.

Spain and Catalonia could be heading for a “Pyrrhic victory on both sides” in terms of their capital markets access, if they fail to reach an agreement on the latter’s status after a disputed independence referendum on Sunday, according to capital markets lawyers.

Last week's crop of benchmarks have been subjected to the scrutiny of the BondMarker voters and, on the whole, they were pretty impressed.

Walt Disney joined the swell of blue chips entering the Maple market, selling C$1.25bn ($1bn) of seven year notes on Wednesday. Maple bonds, a suburb of niche currency markets for years, is becoming a hotbed for blue chips in search of diversification, writes Silas Brown.

Ireland provided the lone benchmark of the week, returning to the syndicated market for the second time this year and printing €4bn of five year paper.

On Wednesday, French toll road operator Cofiroute paid a low single digit new issue premium for its first corporate bond deal in over a year. The 10 year deal found favour with its faithful French investor base.