Ireland

Issuers printed a slew of benchmarks in dollars, euros and sterling last week as the SSA market roared into action. Read on to see whether the first deals of the year won favour with our voters.

Chief executive of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Scott O’Malia on Monday said that the trade body was preparing French and Irish law governed ISDA master agreements to be “ready for all eventualities” in the wake of Brexit.

Rating: A2/A+/A

Ireland opened 2018 with a €4bn print deemed “spectacular” by a banker away from the deal, who said that it was priced flat to the sovereign’s curve.

The SSA market is off to a typically fast start, with four deals in the market and more expected. However, a newly aggressive tone from members of the European Central Bank governing council could rock the boat.

Ireland is set to become the first SSA borrower of 2018 to print a syndicated bond, picking banks for a benchmark deal to be sold on Wednesday. The German state of Lower Saxony will also come to market on Wednesday.

Ireland is open to the possibility of adding green bonds to its funding mix as it looks to diversify its portfolio of debt instruments, according to the country’s head of funding.

Tullow Oil, the oil company headquartered in London but with operations predominantly in Africa, has signed $2.5bn of reserve-based lending (RBL) facilities to refinance existing deals with its relationship banks.

Demand from international investors to participate in Bond Connect is strong – with Ireland and Luxembourg-registered funds set to be the next group to join in once real-time delivery versus payment is introduced later this year, two bankers told the IFLR Asia Capital Markets Forum on Tuesday.

CVC and Ardian charged up the leveraged loan deal pipeline with new buyouts of European businesses in Ireland, Greece and Spain this week. A strengthening European economy is likely to attract more, said market participants.

The BondMarker voters have spoken. The results are in for last week's solitary benchmark from Ireland.

Ireland provided the lone benchmark of the week, returning to the syndicated market for the second time this year and printing €4bn of five year paper.