Deutsche Bank

In a rare instance for CEE countries, Romania has printed 30 year dollar bonds.

KfW opened the door for dollar issuers after a quiet few weeks in the currency, although the issuer — and SFIL, which followed it — had to navigate some price discovery after last week’s Italy-led volatility.

The tone in Europe’s corporate bond new issue market continued to strengthen on Thursday, as two issuers came to market and achieved strong sales, despite a wider market that worsened during the day.

Corporate bond issuers enjoyed tighter spreads and strong order books amid an improvement in issuance conditions as they jumped back into the dollar market this week.

SFIL followed KfW into a reopened dollar market this week with only its second ever dollar benchmark, while engaging in a bit of price discovery that leads said was “spot on”.

Puxin and VCredit Holdings, both of which launched IPOs earlier this week, were covered on their first day of bookbuilding.

Romania has released initial price guidance for a dollar bond offering around a 30bp-40bp pick-up over its outstanding curve, according to a banker away from the deal.

The Republic of Croatia pulled pricing for its €750m 2.7% 2028 bond 30bp tighter than initial price guidance on Wednesday, bringing the reoffer spread nearly flat to the outstanding curve.

KfW reopened the public sector dollar market on Wednesday by picking up a hefty $4bn from a well oversubscribed book. Société de Financement Local will be next up, after mandating banks for a trade.

Swiss Re, the reinsurance group, returned to the equity-linked debt market on Wednesday with a deal that reinforced this issuer’s reputation for financial innovation: a $500m equity-neutral convertible bond that also acts as a contingent convertible security — except with more flexibility for the issuer.

Investors in Carpetright, the UK carpet and flooring retail chain, have backed its recovery plan by subscribing in high numbers for a £60m capital raising.

The Republic of Croatia released initial price guidance for a 10 year bond on Wednesday morning and books for the deal are already in excess of €1.3bn.