Deutsche Bank

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.

Small benchmark covered bond deals issued on Wednesday by Deutsche Bank’s Spanish subsidiary and UniCredit’s Austrian subsidiary were slow to build and priced in line with initial guidance. This led some to question whether this was due to a degree of unease with their parent groups or whether investors baulked at the pricing process.

Turkey has come to market for a 10 year dollar benchmark, reasserting its status as one of emerging market bonds' most frequent borrowers after a turbulent 2018.

Zhenro Properties Group bagged $200m from a short-dated bond on Tuesday — being strategic with its choice of a 363-day tenor, while also finding an opportunistic issuance window on a day market sentiment was on a high.

The European Investment Bank and Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten showed the strength of the dollar market on Tuesday as they sparked the sector into life for 2019 with benchmarks offering minimal concession. Another pair of SSAs are hoping to emulate that success on Wednesday.

While leveraged market participants expect loans to maintain their lead over fixed income in volume terms, some underwriters and lawyers believe market fatigue is beginning to make borrowers turn their attention to high yield bonds again.

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.

Eli Lilly, the US pharmaceuticals company, has agreed to buy Loxo Oncology for around $8bn, as big ticket consolidation in the drug sector continues apace.

The corporate bond market saw its second day of issuance in the new year on Monday when French multi-utility Veolia and Belgian electricity grid operator Elia sold new deals.

Chengdu Expressway Co’s HK$880m ($112.3m) IPO has marked the start of a quiet week for the Hong Kong equity capital markets.

China Aoyuan Group stayed a step ahead of its property peers by raising a comfortable $275m from a tap of its 2021 notes on Thursday, one of two dollar bonds to be priced in Asia so far in the new year.

Companies usually park their reserves of cash in staid, low-yielding liquid assets. But asset managers are trying to persuade them to invest some of that money differently, in a way that could help them live up to their environmental commitments.