Currencies

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is set to become the first Mainland bank to sell a green bond aligned with both international standards and China’s framework.

The renminbi held its spot as the world’s fifth most active payments currency in August, according to Swift’s RMB tracker. The news came just a day after Swift said it will start displaying China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System’s (Cips) data on its system.

Both investment grade corporate bond new issues on Wednesday came from French issuers. Surprisingly, Total issued its first euro bond of 2017, while PSA Banque France sold its second.

Bpifrance Financement has tapped a November 2024 line for €700m, outstripping the size of the original issue and selling into what a banker at one of the leads described as an “amazingly strong market”.

Far East Horizon has returned to the international loan market after a gap of two years for a $500m deal, and is paying a margin that is about half of what it offered last time.

Bank of Montreal launched an inaugural Australian dollar benchmark on Wednesday. As the fanfare for other Canadian financials has demonstrated, the Asian Pacific buyers are likely to come out in full force.

A HK$2bn ($256m) three year maiden loan for China Forestry Group Corp has been received warmly by international banks, resulting in a huge oversubscription, said a banker.

One borrower took advantage of an excellent backdrop to scoop up its first green funding in euros at an attractive level on Tuesday, while a second issuer is lining up to follow suit in dollars.

Tuesday proved to be hybrid day in the European corporate bond markets with Aroundtown tapping its dollar hybrid bond for €200m while German electric utility, RWE, announced it was tendering for up to €550m equivalent of its own equity-like debt.

US machinery manufacturer, John Deere, returned to the euro corporate bond market on Tuesday, selling its second deal in September. The €500m five year deal was issued by the company’s John Deere Bank entity.

Australian pallet and container provider Brambles must think good things come in threes. Having made euro investors wait three years for its last deal, in 2014, it finally returned to the single currency market on Tuesday, printing a deal with virtually no new issue premium.

Münchener Hypothekenbank made its public Swiss franc bond market debut, raising Sfr160m ($164.8m) with a December 2024 bond this week. But, with few German financial institutions with natural franc needs, the possibilities of follow-on trades are few and far between.