HSBC

A number of Chinese real estate companies kicked off their refinancing for 2020 on Monday, with higher rated issuers tapping longer-dated bonds and the weaker names actively engaging in liability management.

A group of shareholders in Xinyi Solar Holdings have bagged HK$1.79bn ($230.7m) after selling a block of shares in the company, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Export-Import Bank of India clinched $1bn from a 10 year bond on Monday, riding on investor enthusiasm for deals from the country.

KfW broke new ground in the sterling bond market on Monday by bringing its largest ever benchmark in the currency. Kommunalbanken is looking to latch on to the red hot market too after picking banks to lead a new December 2024 trade.

Leeds Building Society opened books on Monday for its second Sonia-linked covered bond. The trade benefited from an ‘unparallelled’ level of demand, reaching almost four times its £600m size.

Asian bond issuers went full speed ahead with their fundraising plans on Monday, launching new deals ahead of Chinese New Year holidays at the end of the month.

The European Investment Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank amassed strong demand from investors to kick off their funding programmes for the year on Friday, with the former receiving the biggest ever order book in the sterling supranational and agency bond market, according to the leads.

Nationwide Building Society issued the first sterling covered bond of the year on Friday, without needing to pay any premium over the tight trading levels of its existing bonds.

Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup Joint Stock Co and its automobile subsidiary VinFast have exercised part of a greenshoe option on their joint borrowing, boosting the loan size to $525m.

The Federal State of Lower Saxony sold the first euro public sector benchmark of 2020 with a well received 10 year deal on Thursday. Meanwhile, the European Investment Bank is keeping to tradition of beginning its benchmark funding for the year in sterling.

Southpaw takes a sideways look at some of the big events that defined investment banking in 2019.

The Bank of England said it will increase the countercyclical buffer by 100bp for UK banks after disclosing the results of its latest stress test this week. As the sector performed well in the test, the new capital requirements are being interpreted as a ‘Brexit buffer’ to help institutions withstand the risk of economic turmoil at the end of 2020.