Currencies

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After two days of no euro denominated corporate bond issuance, National Grid North America came with a rare corporate bond transaction on Wednesday. Pricing for the seven year deal moved in 25bp from the wide end of initial price thoughts (IPTs) in a trade that bankers away from the deal praised.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) raised A$100m ($76.1m) on Tuesday by tapping its June 2026 Australian dollar bonds. It was joined later in the week by Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Investment Bank, which launched a tap that is expected to be priced on Friday.

Agence Française de Développement’s change to its banking licence will lead to it sell more private placements, according to Bokar Cherif, the head of the agency’s treasury.

Italian toll road operator, Atlantia, was the only issuer in the euro corporate bond market on Thursday. The €1bn 10 year deal could be used to finance Atlantia’s proposed acquisition of its Spanish rival Abertis.

Annington Homes, the Terra Firma-owned group that owns the UK Ministry of Defence’s estate for accommodating service families, dazzled the corporate bond market with the second largest sterling issue by a company ever on Wednesday, despite the complexity of its financing story. Nigel Owen reports.

DBS launched syndication for a HK$1.2bn ($153.7m) borrowing by photovoltaic power plant developer Beijing Enterprises Clean Energy last week.

Gazprom will return to Switzerland next week for roadshows in Geneva and Zurich. And, as retail taste for sub-investment grade credit grows, the bookrunners are confident the Russian gas firm will attract demand.

The long end of euro government bond curves appear to have regained their health once more after a wobble last week when comments from European Central Bank president Mario Draghi were thought to signal that quantitative easing would end sooner than expected.

The European Financial Stability Facility on Tuesday enjoyed the rare treat of bringing a dual tranche trade that garnered more interest for the longer than the shorter leg. That result surprised bankers away from the deal — but one of the leads said it may have been due to real money investors taking a punt that the end of eurozone quantitative easing is further off than some of their peers think.

The Inter-American Development Bank raised A$100m ($76.1m) on Tuesday by tapping its June 2026 Australian dollar bonds, despite the remaining maturity falling short of where most long end Kangaroo demand resides. Meanwhile, Nederlandse Waterschapsbank responded to reverse enquiry, tapping its 3.5% July 2027 bonds for A$15m.

A sell-off in rates over the last few trading days should support the European Financial Stability Facility’s first trade of the third quarter, said bankers. The supranational mandated banks on Monday for a dual tranche trade in the belly and long end of the euro curve.