Euro

The day after a jumbo corporate bond issue is often a quiet one for new issuance as investors digest their allocations and assess the impact on secondary spreads. But after Sanofi's €8bn offering on Wednesday, Thursday was another bumper day.

Swiss luxury goods company Richemont made its debut in the corporate bond market on Thursday with a jumbo triple tranche offering. And Goldman Sachs leapt in the league tables by solely running the €3.75bn deal.

Vonovia, the German housing company, issued €2.1bn of bonds on Thursday to finance its €5.2bn acquisition of Austrian peer Buwog, which was announced in December.

KfW built a towering book in the five year part of the euro curve on Wednesday with a deal that SSA bankers away from the trade said probably attracted heavy French demand. The agency’s choice of printing just €4bn from a book of over €8bn should ensure a tightening of its curve, they added.

Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical company, priced on Wednesday the largest corporate bond deal so far in 2018, an €8bn six-tranche deal. The company regularly uses a multi-tranche approach to the market, but this was its largest deal so far in any currency.

January and February, particularly the latter, were quiet months for corporate bond new issuance in Europe. However, March is lining up to be the busiest month of 2018 so far in both investment grade and high yield markets, and that is starting to worry investors.

China’s Tianjin Rail Transit Group Co (TRT) and Chengdu Xingcheng Investment Group Co both dipped into the euro market on Tuesday, with the former printing a green bond.

Spanish telecoms company Telefonica has announced the sale of its latest hybrid new issues while also tendering for several of its outstanding hybrids. After over a month since the last benchmark euro hybrid issue, investors contributed to a large order book.

After a reasonable wait, investors are starting to see the more frequent investment grade corporate bond issuers return to the market. On Tuesday, French materials company Saint-Gobain and French telecoms operator Orange sold benchmark deals and UK media company WPP sold a dual-tranche issue.

Two new high yield deals were announced on Monday with two day roadshows and seven year non-call three year structures that were expected to be priced later in the week. Oil exploration company Tullow Oil will offer a dollar deal while German packaging company ProGroup will sell a euro one.

After five years away from the market, Dutch supermarket operator Ahold Delhaize is set to become a frequent issuer as it sold a dual-tranche deal on Monday, six months after its return to the market. American Honda is not quite a frequent issuer, but its new five year deal on Monday took its total outstanding deals in euros to five.

French car manufacturer Peugeot has been on a ratings rollercoaster in the last 10 years. On Friday, now back to the highest sub-investment grade ratings, the company sold its third seven year deal in three years.