Europe

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) responded scathingly to attempts by market participants to “narrowly” trigger credit events that result in favourable pay-outs to buyers of credit default swaps. Costas Mourselas reports.

In an action not seen for years, a would-be Schuldschein issuer has been forced to withdraw its transaction because investors refused to participate, even after the lead bank offered much more attractive pricing terms.

New issue premiums are going to be higher for longer according to FIG bankers looking at the senior unsecured market this week, though the rarest of issuers have been able to push investors harder on pricing.

The investment grade corporate euro bond market had shown a steady return to strength after Easter. It was then tested by eight deals in two days, but showed it was capable of absorbing such volume, and tighter spreads may even be on the cards as French aerospace and defence company Thales achieved the lowest new issue premiums for a month.

Two SSA borrowers printed euro benchmarks on Thursday, rounding out one of the strongest weeks of issuance in the currency of the year.

Adecco, the Swiss temporary staffing company, has become the latest blue chip to use a sustainability-linked loan structure for its main corporate revolving credit facility.

Springer Nature, the German publisher of academic journals, has begun investor education for its IPO in Frankfurt.

European high yield bond issuers roadshowed for seven lower rated new offerings this week, leaving behind the quiet of the post-Easter recess. What followed was a vigorous tug of war over pricing and terms in which bankers and investors claimed different victories.

Three new retail listings this week marked the renaissance of Turkey's IPO market. But if trying to do three similar deals simultaneously wasn't hard enough work, they come just as the country's economic prospects and the part it plays in the Syrian conflict are of growing concern for investors, writes Sam Kerr.

The belly of the covered bond curve is soft with offers easy to find. Traders are hopeful that spreads will stabilise after next week’s slew of issuance but confidence is lacking. Yet there are pockets of performance if you look hard enough.

Some US private placement investors in London are investing more time and resources on bilateral US PP transactions that do not involve either syndication or agent banks, so as to gain full allocations and originate their own business.

Spanish civil engineering group ACS sold the first senior green bond by a corporate issuer for more than a month on Thursday, following a European roadshow earlier in the week. Green bonds are often said to offer a pricing benefit to issuers, but the company found it still had to pay a significant new issue premium.