Euro

Russian giant Gazprom and Ukrainian oil and gas firm Naftogaz, who have been locking horns in court, both chose Tuesday to release price guidance for new Eurobonds. The Gazprom deal will be the first public international bond from a Russian issuer since the US sanctions that shook the market in April. The Naftogaz bond is its first since 2009.

CEZ, a Czech utility company, came to market for four year euros on Tuesday, returning to the currency for its largest deal since 2013.

The Flemish Community of Belgium was twice covered for its debut sustainability bond on Monday, following the completion of a pan-European roadshow last week. Meanwhile, Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten has added to the SRI pipeline after mandating banks for its second sustainability trade of the year.

After Volkswagen printed the biggest trade in its history the previous week, the company’s International Finance arm sold a six tranche dual-currency deal on Monday. In total, the company raised more than €14bn equivalent in a week.

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Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB) will look to fill the €1bn-€1.5bn it has left to raise this year with its annual water bond benchmark and potentially a short end benchmark. That is in keeping with the wider SSA market, where bankers expect socially responsible investment (SRI) issuance to form the bulk of this year’s final trades.

The European Financial Stability Facility finished off its 2018 issuance this week with what was likely the last jumbo euro benchmark of the year. The deal was solid, but SSA bankers warned the euro market feels “tired”.

Two emerging market (EM) sovereigns hit the euro market this week: one debuting and the other returning after a year-long absence. Both deals met with warm receptions, giving some credibility to the notion that euro investors will be happy to stay in EM deals even as quantitative easing (QE) winds up and rates climb.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia rounded out the week’s euro issuance with an oversubscribed 10 year euro deal that was priced 1bp inside guidance.

BMW Finance found no reduction in the demand for its paper, despite its new issue on Thursday being its fourth dual-tranche deal of the year. The company has sold at least €1.75bn during each previous quarter of 2018, and it hit that mark again with its shortest combination of tenors.

American pharmaceutical company Allergan, best known for its cosmetic drug Botox, returned to Europe on Thursday for a new three tranche corporate bond deal. The €1.7bn transaction fell short of the company’s debut €2.7bn deal, but was a filip for a market that had been silent the previous day due to the US mid-term elections.