ING

Anglian Water priced the first green corporate bond in sterling since 2015 on Monday. The company’s green bond debut could herald a surge of deals from its peers, writes Nigel Owen.

Anglian Water priced a £250m eight year bond on Monday, its first green bond and the first from a UK water company since the Green Bond Principles were introduced in 2015.

With no new issues pricing on Thursday, and no sign of Superstrada Pedemontana Veneta’s €1.55bn dual tranche deal, it could be left to The Housing Finance Corp (THFC) to save the investment grade corporate bond market from a three day run without any issuance.

The three new issues and one tap that priced in the investment grade corporate bond market this week were all two to three times oversubscribed, but a thinning supply pipeline and the excuse of a Fed meeting meant no deals were launched on Wednesday or Thursday. However, three issuers are looking to issue before the summer break, following meetings with investors.

The corporate bond deals priced so far this week show a robust market. A US Federal Reserve meeting and a thinning pipeline may have resulted in a maiden over of a Wednesday, but hopes are high of primary business picking up before the end of the week.

After Monday’s British flavour to corporate bond issuance, German property company, Grand City Properties, and French food services company, Sodexo, brought deals to the market on Tuesday. Grand City printed a €600m nine year new issue and Sodexo tapped its €600m 0.75% April 2027 deal for €200m.

Oil and gas company MOL became the first Hungarian issuer to raise funds in the Schuldschein market, in a sign that more lenders, given the right credit, are prepared to be tempted eastwards.

BC Partners has agreed to buy German cloud technology firm PlusServer from US internet group GoDaddy, mandating Société Générale with an all senior loan package due in early September.

Three more Turkish banks have come to the market to refinance loans from 2016, marking the second wave of refi deals to come out of the region this year.

On Tuesday Bright Food became the latest Chinese corporate to launch a euro bond in Asia. This has become a regular occurrence in recent months. However, this deal saw a higher than usual level of demand out of Europe, prompting some European bankers to speculate on what had changed the demand dynamics for this deal.

On Tuesday Nestlé issued its first bond since announcing a Sfr20bn (€18bn) share buy-back programme last month. Three rating agencies cut the Swiss foods group’s rating after the announcement, but there was no discernible drop in demand for this transaction.

The European leveraged finance markets are licking their lips in anticipation of a new €2.5bn deal backing Bain and Cinven’s takeover of Stada Arzneimittel, the German generic drug manufacturer.