HSBC

Hong Kong’s MTR Corp has a reputation for recalibrating pricing in the region’s syndicated loan market and its latest HK$15bn ($1.9bn) dual-tranche facility is no different. The company has returned to the market after a gap of nearly 10 years, but its long absence is unlikely to pose a challenge, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

The Asia ex-Japan primary bond market got off to a blazing restart after the Chinese New Year holidays with the Republic of the Philippines raising $2bn from a popular accelerated one-day switch plus new money transaction.

Romania is offering a 20bp new issue premium on taps of its euro-denominated 2025 and 2035 bonds, according to a lead manager on the trade.

Nordic Investment Bank is preparing a three year dollar benchmark, following a KfW five year deal that had to brave a backdrop of negative swap spreads.

Glencore's core relationship banks showed strong support for its refinancing of a $8.45bn one-year loan, despite volatility for commodities and a recent downgrade for the mining and trading firm.

SSA issuers have come through a battering time in markets to print euro deals, with Austria hitting the long end of the curve and BNG also printing. But the scars are showing as KfW is demonstrating in the dollar market.

Investors have only been offered a tap of a Bahrain bond in the CEEMEA primary market this week so far, but it has been far from quiet as other events and people moves in EM caught the eye.

The Asia ex-Japan bond market finally saw some primary activity on Wednesday with the Republic of the Philippines set to be the first sovereign issuer of the year. The country launched a new 25 year bond and is giving investors the option to switch out of 16 outstanding deals at the same time.

The covered bond market could see the second Singaporean deal soon, with United Overseas Bank (UOB) mandating leads for a series of European investor meetings that could result in its first deal.

Austria has printed €5bn in a dual tranche issuance, pricing in 10 and 30 year tenors as the sovereign took advantage of a window of opportunity arising from a rally in global equities.

By the second day of Saipem’s auction of its unsold rights, all of them had been sold to investors — but with the share price still 3.3% below the subscription price at Thursday's close, the underwriters may yet have to buy up to €427m of stock.

A $1.775bn loan for ONGC Videsh, the international arm of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has attracted commitments from just two lenders in syndication, with the deal due to close by the end of this week.