HSBC

The UK Municipal Bonds Agency has announced the two first councils that will take part in its pooled issuance scheme, although the bonds themselves may well not be issued before the summer.

The UK Debt Management Office has chosen the banks to lead what will be the first of an unprecedented two syndicated offerings in a single calendar month as it prepares to finance a substantial increase in its borrowing requirements.

Corporate bond bankers expect May to be a blockbuster month, as syndicate officials say that coronavirus pandemic fatigue has set in and the market has stopped worrying about it.

Signify, the Dutch lighting company, got roaring demand for its acquisition bridge takeout bond on Thursday — its maiden issue — as it tempted investors with an eye-catching initial spread.

The UK’s RPS Group, a professional services consultancy firm, has signed a £60m short term revolving credit facility that sits alongside its main bank revolver, as borrowers continue to build their access to liquidity in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pension Insurance Corp was almost 12 times subscribed for a new tier two capital bond on Thursday, after following some of its UK peers into the sterling market amid a busy pipeline for new pension risk transfer deals.

The high grade corporate primary market was receptive to issuance again on Wednesday, as syndicate bankers predicted this would bode well for what is expected to be a blockbuster May.

Hong Kong's Wharf Real Estate Investment Company (Wharf REIC) raised $750m from a dual-tranche bond on Tuesday. The issuer was able to take more than it initially intended, while paying a small new issue premium.

Banco Santander wasted no time in heading to the non-preferred senior market this week, with investors responding well to the way in which European banks have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in their first quarter results.

Any impression that the European corporate bond market was returning to more measured levels of activity was zapped on Tuesday, when five new issues were launched that had to squeeze more than €35bn of bids into just €6.25bn of paper.

Currency markets helped revenues in HSBC’s global banking and markets division in the first quarter. But along with the rest of the group, it had to take big losses for credit exposures thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Marks & Spencer, the UK retailer, has negotiated with its lenders to relax the covenant testing on its £1.1bn revolving credit facility, as it tries to mitigate the effects of a pandemic that has sent its ratings crashing into junk territory.