HSBC

Riskier high grade corporate names saw more than €45bn of combined demand for new bonds on Wednesday. Danaher, Carrefour, Bertelsmann, Philips and Heineken were all in the market following a batch of deals from higher rated names a day earlier encourages borrowers to pile in.

Europe’s corporate bond market showed the same kind of energy on Tuesday that the US market did three times last week, as a clutch of blue chip issuers launched new deals on the very first day of stability the market offered. Sanofi found huge demand and only a slight slowness from the UK being in lockdown.

Kuwait's Equate Petrochemical stuck its head above the parapet this week, holding investor calls for a triple-tranche bond issue.

Confectionery company Néstle, soft drink maker Coca-Cola European Partners and French pharmaceutical company Sanofi piled into Europe's bond market with new issues on Tuesday, suggesting that borrowers are increasingly eager and quick to react when the market shows any signs of stabilising.

South Korea's Shinhan Bank is hoping to sell a public dollar bond in April, following a virus-linked $50m private placement this month.

The Bank of England said on Friday morning that UK banks should not treat coronavirus-impacted exposures as impaired assets under IFRS 9 accounting standards, as it unveiled new guidance around the impact of the pandemic.

Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance broke an almost year-long break from the China auto ABS market this week with a Rmb6.316bn ($892m) deal. The company added a three month revolving period to its transaction, a rarity for issuers.

HSBC’s hunt for a group chief executive has ended where it began, with the bank appointing interim boss Noel Quinn on a permanent basis.

Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment (Group) Co has priced $59m of new bonds as part of an exchange offer. It received lukewarm response for the transaction, with existing investors of less than a fifth of the original deal agreeing to roll over.

Air France-KLM has taken a series of exceptional measures including drawing down on €1.765bn of bank debt, as some lenders say that the industries worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic will lean heavily on their lending banks.

A sharp turn in market sentiment following the announcement of a travel ban by the US has destroyed any hopes for a revival in the corporate bond market, sending high grade spreads 25bp wider as borrowers ducked and covered until at least next week.

British American Tobacco has signed the first multicurrency revolving credit facility that uses a variety of risk-free rates as benchmarks, potentially clearing a hurdle that loan market participants have long said was hindering the transition from Libor.