Deutsche Bank

The total issuance of investment grade corporate bonds in February was an underwhelming €14.8bn but the property sector has outshone all others in 2018 and this week was no different as investors had further diversification to consider.

Republic of Senegal could well have timed to perfection its plans to issue a euro-denominated bond with EM investors calling this the “last chance” for EM borrowers to take advantage of extraordinarily low interest rates in the currency.

Finnish residential property developer Kojamo and French care home operator Orpea added to the geographical diversity of the property company corporate bonds sold this week with a €500m seven year deal, while frequent issuer RCI Banque sold a dual tranche offering

Baidu-backed video streaming service iQiyi and Chinese hotel operator GreenTree Hospitality Group are readying a pair of US IPOs for the end of March to raise a combined $1.7bn.

Slovenia printed €1.25bn by way of a triple tranche euro bond tap on Wednesday from a book of €4bn, paying small new issue premiums. Marjan Divjak, director general in Slovenia’s Ministry of Finance, said that the country is “more or less done” in the international bond markets for the year.

Europe’s syndicated loans bankers say recent transactions highlight how cut-throat the market is for lenders, as the European Commission gets under way with a study on market practices.

Books for the Republic of Slovenia’s triple tranche euro bond tap were in excess of €3.6bn by lunchtime on Wednesday, with final spreads having been set for each clip. The deal is part of a liability management exercise that swaps out short dated dollar debt for longer euro denominated paper.

Ukraine’s DTEK is meeting fixed income investors this week to update investors. The borrower is in the process of restructuring some outstanding bank loans.

Four of the six deals in the primary market in Asia on Tuesday were from Chinese real estate companies. But despite the inevitable competitive dynamics between the trades, Modern Land (China) Co, Yuzhou Properties Company, Guorui Properties and Tahoe Group Co were all able to meet their targets.

Three public sector borrowers hit screens in euros on Tuesday, taking advantage of a hot market to offer zero or limited new issue premiums.

AMS, the Austrian sensor supplier listed on SIX Swiss Exchange, priced a €600m seven year convertible bond on Monday, led by Deutsche Bank, that achieved a negative yield.

Republic of Senegal is planning to make its first funding foray into euros, following its fellow West African nation Cote d’Ivoire to fund in its natural currency.