Deutsche Bank

Royal Dutch Shell, the UK-Dutch oil company, issued its first euro bond since 2009 today, completing a hat trick of bond issues this week by oil majors.

The recent spurt of floating rate senior unsecured FIG issuance continued on Wednesday, as issuers look cut out the cost of basis swaps by issuing while demand for senior is hot.

State-owned Brazilian lender Banco do Brasil opened books on a tap of its €700m 2018 euro notes on Wednesday morning.

The first mandate for a new Iraqi bond has been given since the start of the war in 2003. Gulf Keystone Petroleum has picked Deutsche Bank and Pareto Securities to arrange a RegS/144A three year transaction of up to $250m.

Hungary built a herculean $14.5bn order book for a dual tranche dollar deal on Tuesday, which should herald a similarly strong response for other CEEMEA sovereigns planning bonds. Capital flight from Russia has moved into other CEE credits, increasing demand that was already heightened by weak supply.

Hungary has left CEEMEA sovereigns in no doubt as to the degree of demand awaiting them in the bond market. A speech from Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday reassuring the world that Russia's ambitions in Ukraine extended no further than Crimea was like music to the CEEMEA bond market's ears. A sharp rally prompted Hungary to launch a dual tranche deal that drew almost $15bn from 800 accounts. Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania, meanwhile, are in varying states of preparation ahead of their own deals.

Russian iron ore producer Metalloinvest has signed a $1.15bn pre-export finance facility to refinance existing debt.

Maoye International Holdings is yet to price its debut CNH bond which has led to market speculation that the deal has been pulled. However, bankers on the trade continue to say that books are still open.

US listed Chinese social media company YY successfully priced a $400m equity-linked deal on its second attempt to access the convertible market, by relaxing the pricing terms and following in the footsteps of Vipshop to use Asian demand to build momentum.

All eyes are on Harbin Bank this week after the Chinese lender started receiving bids for its HK$10.1bn ($1.3bn) listing on March 19. The bank has not had the smoothest time in the lead-up to the launch, while it is also being impaired by regulatory constraints and lacklustre investor appetite.

Total, the French oil company rated Aa1/AA-, launched its first benchmark euro bond of the year on Tuesday, after a $2.5bn issue in January.

Half of UK plastic piping producer Polypipe is set to be put into freefloat as part of the company’s IPO, announced on Tuesday.