Goldman Sachs

Indications of interest for Saudi Aramco’s planned bond issue were understood to have topped $15bn on Thursday morning in London, with three days left of the roadshow still to run. Contrary to press reports, investors have been told on the roadshow that the cash raised will not be used directly to fund the acquisition of Saudi Basic Industries Corp, as that is not expected to take place for another six to 12 months, writes Francesca Young.

Russian equity capital markets are red hot again, after almost two years in the cold, with supply being driven by some of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs. As investors warm to Russian equities, more of these billionaires are set to monetise some of their holdings, writes Sam Kerr.

Tencent Holdings this week sold the largest dollar bond by an Asian issuer in more than a year, offering a five tranche deal that spanned five to 30 year maturities. In doing so, it also managed to achieve one of the flattest 10-30 year curves for a technology company new issue, writes Addison Gong.

Indications of interest for Saudi Aramco’s bond are understood to have hit over $15bn, with the roadshow not finishing until Monday April 8.

Chinese game streaming platform Huya Inc has launched a potential $550m follow-on offering, less than a year after settling its New York IPO.

Four new corporate bonds hit the market on Wednesday. In a change from recent days, all the deals were of moderate size and single tranched. Terna, the Italian grid operator, and Banque PSA France were typical in launching €500m no-grow deals. Book sizes diverged strongly, with those two issuers getting heavy oversubscription, while Aroundtown and Voestalpine had much less.

Hong Kong’s AIA Group looked to the US market for its latest $1bn bond sale on Tuesday.

ABB, the Swiss-Swedish machinery maker, issued an unusual bond on Tuesday: an 18 month floating rate note that grew as large as €1bn.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has extended the maturity of its €6.25bn syndicated bank facility, as loan market activity picks up at the beginning of the second quarter.

Volksbank Wien placed its debut additional tier one deal on Tuesday, becoming the latest financial institution to revisit a transaction that was first floated in late 2018.

Berry Global said on Monday that it has added more banks to the financing for its purchase of UK packaging group RPC, one of the year’s hotly anticipated new money leveraged loans.

AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish pharmaceuticals giant, has priced a historic £2.7bn accelerated transaction ($3.5bn) to fund a transformational oncology collaboration. But sources close to the deal say that execution was complicated by Brexit drama last Friday.