Deutsche Bank

A number of Chinese real estate companies kicked off their refinancing for 2020 on Monday, with higher rated issuers tapping longer-dated bonds and the weaker names actively engaging in liability management.

Air France KLM has mandated banks for a five year euro bond. The appearance of an unrated issuer so early in the year is being seen as a sign of the market’s strength.

Asian bond issuers went full speed ahead with their fundraising plans on Monday, launching new deals ahead of Chinese New Year holidays at the end of the month.

Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup Joint Stock Co and its automobile subsidiary VinFast have exercised part of a greenshoe option on their joint borrowing, boosting the loan size to $525m.

Singapore-based aircraft leasing company Avation has obtained a green loan to support its purchase of aircraft.

Southpaw takes a sideways look at some of the big events that defined investment banking in 2019.

MTN bankers are tipping Formosa and senior non-preferred debt for big things in 2020. Both markets, along with MTNs as a whole, have had an underwhelming year as issuance failed to live up to the promise of a busy 2018.

Big European investment banks pivoted towards the Americas during 2019 in an attempt to boost revenues and position themselves for the next downturn, writes David Rothnie. With large M&A across the industry still off the table, banks are finding scale through joint ventures and alliances.

Debt bankers and investors focused on Indonesia are eager to put the year behind them, after elections and a big dollar bond default dented issuance volumes. But they are optimistic about 2020, believing that the southeast Asian country could live up to its potential as a hotbed of high yield borrowing. Morgan Davis reports.

Specialisation could define MTNs in 2020 as the market looks to differentiate itself from public markets where borrowers are easily executing large, cheap, liquid benchmarks. MTN dealers’ change of focus is shaking up the league tables. Frank Jackman reports

Covered bonds performed well in 2019, but yields finished in negative territory and spreads ended at their tightest for the year. The implication is that, despite higher than expected ECB covered bond purchases and a renewal of its ultra-cheap TLTRO facility, investors will struggle to match 2019’s returns in 2020, writes Bill Thornhill.

Navigating the covered bond market will not be without its challenges in 2020. The Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operation (TLTRO), European Central Bank deposit tiering and the Covered Bond Purchase Programme have collectively distorted the market, but added to this concoction is the impact of negative interest rates. Against this backdrop issuers, investors and investment bankers gathered in Munich in November to discuss the outlook for covered bonds. It is likely that new issue premiums will gradually tighten, but the path is unlikely to be smooth. January is typically the busiest month, but in 2019, issuers that funded this early paid the highest spreads. And, with the ECB expected to buy in the region of €4.5bn covered bonds a month, issuers will not feel compelled to move early. But the ECB monetary policy has unwelcome implications. Covered bonds have begun to lose value against government bonds, and this will extend if the ECB is unable to loosen restrictions on government bond purchases.