Euro

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Vonovia, Germany’s largest housing association, may have issued the only investment grade corporate bond on Monday but, as its order books showed, conditions remained very receptive for issuance.

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s last visit to the euro bond market was to help finance its $107bn acquisition of SAB Miller in 2016 and on Tuesday the world’s largest brewer returned with a smaller offering that investors were still thirsty for.

French toll road operator Autoroutes du Sud de la France on Wednesday followed the path its compatriot Orange had taken on Tuesday by issuing a €1bn 12 year bond, while Deutsche Bahn and Ren Finance on Thursday opted for the 10 year area of the curve. Investors appear keen to put their money to work at the longer end of the corporate bond curve.

Italian auto finance bank FCA Bank was in the market on Wednesday with its first benchmark floating rate note, which was priced with no new issue premium.

Italian electricity supplier Enel sold its second green bond on Tuesday, repeating the timing of its first such offering in 2017, which it also sold in the second week of the year. The latest deal was the same size, but priced tighter and won a larger order book, despite having a longer maturity.

Multi-tranche and green bond issuance returned to the investment grade corporate bond market on Tuesday, leaving just the hybrid asset class untouched in 2018. That didn’t last long, as Engie and Aroundtown launched new hybrid deals on Wednesday morning, one of which set new lows for coupons and spreads.

State owned German rail operator Deutsche Bahn steamed back into the investment grade corporate bond market on Thursday, choosing an unusual maturity that was still well received by investors. The same applied to Ren Finance, which brought a sub-benchmark 10 year deal following a roadshow earlier in the week.

A combined €48bn of cash swelled the orderbooks for Italy and Portugal’s deals on Wednesday, dispelling any fears that the reduction of the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme would hamper demand.

On Wednesday French toll road operator Autoroutes du Sud de la France followed the path its compatriot Orange had taken on Tuesday by issuing a €1bn 12 year new issue. Meanwhile Italian auto finance bank FCA Bank was also in the market with its first benchmark floating rate note.

Traditionally, January causes investors the headache of trying to keep up with the number of deals coming to market. This January however, it was starting to look like investors may have had the opposite problem.

Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) has asked banks to submit bids for a €1bn financing to support its M&A activities, said a banker whose firm is in the race for the mandate.