HSBC

UK chemicals giant Ineos’s German styrenics subsidiary is marketing €500m of senior secured notes and a €680m equivalent term loan B, with an intention to issue a €300m dividend to its parent company, controlled by billionaire Jim Ratcliffe. The remaining proceeds will be used for refinancing all of its term loans and some of the upcoming investments.

High grade corporate names kicked off the 2020 sterling market in style this week, with big books and eye-catching trades for the University of Oxford, Clarion Housing and Ireland's Electricity Supply Board.

The European socially responsible investment corporate bond market has made a rampant start this year, with issuance in the first two weeks already more than 10% of the total issued by companies in European currencies in 2019.

Eni, the Italian oil and gas company, raised €1bn with a bond issue on Thursday, while Quadient, the unrated French postal systems company formerly known as Neopost, continued the run of more esoteric corporate bond issuance.

Investors chased after a rare $300m Basel III-compliant tier two bond from Indonesia’s Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) in both primary and secondary markets this week, sending the 12.3 times covered deal tighter in the aftermarket.

China’s Bank of Communications came out with a $1.95bn-equivalent three-tranche deal on Thursday. It opted for a bigger dollar portion and a slimmer offshore renminbi (CNH) bond, compared with its last outing.

Russian brokerage BCS Global Markets has appointed a senior banker from HSBC as head of capital markets and investment banking.

A pair of Asian SSA issuers joined a busy dollar market on Wednesday, bringing three and 10 year deals. Demand for three year dollar paper is high, with two more issuers set to join the fray on Thursday.

Emerging markets telecommunications firm Veon, formerly Vimpelcom, printed a $300m tap of its $700m 4% April 2025s on Wednesday from a book of more than $1bn and paying a new issue premium of only 5bp, according to a syndicate official on the tap.

The overwhelming supply of international bonds from Asia continued on Tuesday, as issuers dashed to raise dollars, and in one case, sterling. But not every borrower was able to cross the finish line.

Indian companies Birla Carbon and Tata Steel have mandated banks for loans and both borrowers have signed up large groups of lenders at the top level.

Spain and Cyprus attracted strong demand for their syndicated bonds on Tuesday, with the former receiving the largest ever order book for a public sector euro benchmark. Italy and Belgium will add to the eurozone sovereign supply on Wednesday after mandating leads for new 30 and 10 year trades, respectively.