Goldman Sachs

The European Investment Bank announced its first euro benchmark of the year on Wednesday, looking to take advantage of a super strong backdrop and avoid an expected heavy pipeline of supply next week.

Europe’s primary equity-linked market has reopened for 2021, with a debut €200m green convertible bond issued by Voltalia, the French renewable energy company.

Issuers from Greater China flooded the market with dollar deals on Tuesday, capitalising on strong appetite from investors ready to put money to work in the new year.

Standard Chartered and Crédit Agricole jumped into the long end of the yield curve on Tuesday, as the pair looked to harness the desire for long-dated dollar debt.

Luigi Nalini SpA, an investment vehicle representing the Nalini family, has sold €64.5m of stock in Carel Industries, the Italian maker of air conditioning and humidifier systems, via an accelerated bookbuild on Monday night.

A pair of senior non-preferred bonds from Swedbank and Société Générale on Tuesday followed Monday’s opener from ING. With three household names now having established pricing points, rarer borrowers are starting to fill the pipeline.

American insurers Metropolitan Life and Athene Holding had a busy start to the year as they tapped the sterling, euro and dollar markets to issue a quartet of funding agreement backed (FAB) securities.

Chinese property borrowers reopened Asia’s primary dollar bond market on Monday, with four issuers raising nearly $2bn between them following solid demand from investors.

A trio of Chinese companies, including healthcare technology provider Yidu Tech and television series producer Strawbear Entertainment Group, kicked off their IPOs in Hong Kong at the end of December as they prepare to be the first new firms to start trading on the bourse in 2021.

US-listed Chinese companies have raised more than $12bn from equity investors in the past month, with iQiyi becoming the latest to simultaneously sell a convertible bond and price a follow-on offering of its American depositary shares. With valuations soaring for many of these stocks, bankers expect more issuers to jump into the market in 2021, writes Jonathan Breen.

Chinese streaming platform iQiyi has kicked off a combined convertible bond and follow-on offering that could raise around $1.7bn.

Pirelli, the Italian tyres company, has issued its first convertible bond since its re-IPO on the Milan Stock Exchange in 2017, raising €500m.