Goldman Sachs

The euro market has, after a wobble in the first week, adjusted admirably to a new price level and got off to a spectacular start, providing record book sizes and smooth executions across the curve.

Italy and Portugal showed this week that any concerns about the pace of eurozone quantitative easing halving to €30bn from January were overdone as they each built their largest ever benchmark books. Italy’s trade was particularly notable, as it was the last syndication by its retiring head of funding — and market stalwart — Maria Cannata.

Bayer took advantage of the robust conditions in Europe’s market for equity block trades on Wednesday night with another jumbo sale of stock in Covestro, the former plastics division it span off in 2015.

The European Investment Bank put the strength of the appetite for duration in the euro market to the test on Thursday, becoming the first borrower of the year to attack the ultra long end of the curve.

Public sector issuers rounded out a superlative week for dollars with sparkling results across the curve on Thursday. Bankers are confident that issuers wishing to print in the coming weeks should find that investor demand outweighs any of the political concerns that brought volatility to rates over the last few days.

Investors piled in excess of $12.5bn orders into a dual tranche dollar trade for Israel on Wednesday, the largest level of oversubscription the sovereign has ever experienced.

Goldman Sachs has added two senior executives to its investment banking division in Hong Kong who will focus on equity and equity-linked products.

The euro market is providing SSA borrowers with ever more impressive execution — the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) pulled off the largest supranational or agency deal of the year on Wednesday — but it faces a fresh challenge on Thursday: ultra long debt.

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.

The Inter-American Development Bank provided further proof on Wednesday that there is deep demand at the five year part of the dollar curve — but another supranational is stepping up to test the long end of the currency for the first time this year.

The State of Israel opened books on Wednesday for a dual tranche dollar note that will extend its curve by an extra five years.

Dollar investors had plenty of Chinese property bonds to choose from this week, with four issuers competing for their attention on Tuesday. But with no end in sight to the pipeline, companies will have to navigate the market carefully, or cough up a premium for their bonds.