HSBC

French oil company Total SA has mandated banks for a multi-tranche euro hybrid bond deal, after the drop in oil prices last year put the credit ratings of oil companies under pressure.

AusNet Services, the Australian electricity and gas distributor, issued a €560m 12 year bond on Friday, raising precisely the sum it wanted to swap into Australian dollars. The bond was priced close to the issuer's curve.

Spanish civil and engineering company Grupo Actividades de Construcción y Servicios announced a €2.4bn five year loan today with a syndicate of 43 banks. The deal took three months to complete, which is unusual in the Spanish market, where deals usually take three weeks, said one Spanish banker.

Italian electricity company Enel refinanced a €9.4bn credit facility on Thursday and reduced the margin on the loan from 190bp to 80bp over Euribor.

Telecommunication tower provider Solusi Tunas Pratama (STP) raised $300m from a five year non-call three bond on February 12, in what was the second international bond from the sector in less than 10 days.

Impressively tight pricing for a triple-C credit and an adjustment to the terms of the bond made it clear that investors this week buying the City of Buenos Aires’ international bond issue are betting on a change to a more market-friendly government in Argentina.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

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.