JP Morgan

Asahi, Japan’s largest brewer, drew the biggest demand in the high grade corporate bond market on Wednesday, adding to the recent trend of issuers from the country getting a roaring response from investors in Europe.

A weighty corporate hedging transaction has added to the momentum of the US rates market’s transition from Libor. JP Morgan executed a $500m swap referencing Sofr with a blue chip corporate, Unilever.

The Republic of Austria picked banks to lead a new 20 year euro benchmark on Wednesday, while the European Stability Mechanism surprised some market participants by sounding out banks for a deal next week, which could clash with the EU’s grand arrival as a supersized issuer.

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) sold its second tier two trade of the year, raising £400m with what some investors saw as an opportunistic move.

China Merchants Commerce Financial Leasing Co (CMC Leasing) made its debut in the dollar bond market on Tuesday, selling a $350m five year deal.

Morphosys, the German biotech company, has tapped the equity-linked market with a new €325m convertible bond, adding to the flood of issuance from the sector during the pandemic.

Enel, the Italian energy company, proved that there is sterling demand for sustainability-linked bonds on Tuesday, with the borrower repeating its achievement in dollars and euros by creating the market in the currency.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades) will add a new point on its dollar social bond curve with a 10 year trade on Wednesday, where it will be joined by two other public sector issuers in the currency.

KfW and Ville de Paris grabbed the attention of investors at the opposite ends of the euro curve on Tuesday in what has been a thin week for issuance in the currency by public sector borrowers ahead of the expected arrival of the EU’s first syndicated bond under its Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) funding programme next week.

A pair of European banks approached the euro senior market in different ways on Tuesday: Iccrea targeted a smaller pool of investors with its delayed callable debut, while BFCM went big with a blowout long 10 year.

Enel, the Italian power and gas company, is set to push the nascent sustainability-linked bond market to a new currency this week after the company mandated for the first deal in the format in sterling.

KfW mandated banks for a seven year euro benchmark on Monday, a deal which was already expected to arrive this week and could well be the German agency’s final public deal in the currency this year.