HSBC

With up to $50bn of additional tier one deals expected to hit the bond markets this year, bank funding teams are praying that this evolving but crucial asset class can settle down and help them meet their capital needs.

An incredible streak of record breaking low yields skipped through the covered bond market this week as issuers from Germany and France set new records, while another outside the Eurozone issued the first deal longer than 10 years with a coupon below 1%. Despite the low level of return, investors piled into all three euro transactions.

The Schuldschein market is not sitting back and basking in the glory of ZF Friedrichshafen’s €2.2bn deal in January. There are a large number of deals in the market from local and international issuers including Telefónica Deutschland, Gerry Weber, and Rhenus Logistics.

Gwynt y Môr Ofto has issued a £399m bond to finance its £352m investment in the offshore transmission system for a 576MW windfarm off the north coast of Wales. The deal, which is supported by credit enhancement from the European Investment Bank, was nearly three times oversubscribed.

Swedbank on Thursday took to the dollar market to sell the first additional tier one from a Nordic bank with a conversion to equity feature.

Smurfit Kappa Group, the Irish packaging group, priced a €250m 10 year high yield bond on Wednesday evening that found solid demand, after announcing higher earnings and revenue for 2014.

Tentative allocations are out for Indonesian oil and gas company Pertamina’s five year fundraising. The loan has been closed at a size of $1.747bn, with the dozen banks at the top that prefunded the money managing to sell down as per expectations, said bankers close to the transaction.

Telecommunication tower operator Solusi Tunas Pratama (STP) is looking to tap the offshore market for the first time, opening books to a $300m bond on February 12.

Argentine quasi-sovereigns are continuing to benefit from investor hopes for a settlement between holdout creditors and the government by issuing cross-border bonds — and are helping to alleviate the country’s dollar shortage in the process.

Telecity, the UK data connectivity provider, has revealed a £600m refinancing loan as part of its results announcement to shareholders this year.

Russian Standard Bank has finally secured investor approval to update its 10.75% 2018 tier two capital notes, after a lengthy process that began in November.

The Republic of Bulgaria has said it is mandating Citigroup, HSBC, Société Générale and UniCredit as “arrangers and dealers” on its €8bn global medium term note programme, according to a release on the country’s Ministry of Finance website. The programme was signed on February 6.