Japan

A falling euro/dollar basis swap has made dollar issuance for euro funding borrowers more attractive — but with a crucial US rate decision looming only a brave or foolish issuer would take the opportunity.

Barclays looked away from euros on Friday as the bank priced a Samurai deal that made it the first bank to print yen denominated senior debt from the holdco level.

The Japanese equities market is set for a huge bump in IPO volumes following the announcement that the ¥1.39tr ($11.5bn) triple listings of Japan Post will launch in October.

Unicharm, a Japanese maker of nappies and sanitary towels, launched an unusual ¥50bn ($419m) convertible bond on Tuesday September 8, with an exceptionally high offer price of 111.5.

Barclays began marketing a multi-tranche Samurai trade on Monday, as some FIG bankers claimed European banks were still baulking at the new issue premiums being offered by US visitors to the euro market.

Daiwa Capital Markets has hired a former head of sterling credit trading from Lloyds in a bid to increase the Japanese group’s presence in the currency.

Bloomberg Tradebook Japan has launched an electronic trading platform and Tradeweb Markets’ regulated marketplace for trading interest rate swaps in Japan has hosted its first trade in support of Japan’s new mandatory trading rules.

Svenska Handelsbanken was able to price its latest Samurai deal virtually in line with theoretical euro levels on Thursday, though some away from the deal said it was conservatively sized.

Svenska Handelsbanken is set to make its first trip to yen this year, as bankers’ hopes of seeing an early restart to FIG supply in Europe this week were hit by a global sell-off on Monday.

In what was hailed as a momentous, perhaps record breaking, week in high yield finance, Japanese telecoms operator SoftBank took the crown by raising the year’s biggest Asian offshore high yield deal, writes Victor Jimenez.

SoftBank Group on Wednesday began roadshowing for euro and dollar bonds, even though the European high yield market has been at a standstill for two weeks while Greece negotiated its third bailout.

Japan’s domestic debt market has long proven to be one of the most resilient in the world, backed by an army of institutional investors that have a clear preference for buy-and-hold strategies and familiar credits. That resilience was put to the test at the end of last year, after Moody’s announced that it had downgraded the sovereign. Matthew Thomas reports.