JP Morgan

Turkey’s Akbank has refinanced a syndicated loan with tighter margins than its existing facility, as lenders demonstrate unwavering appetite for Turkish debt.

In spite of an equity sell-off on Wednesday morning, Portugal was warmly received when it hit the market on Wednesday, printing its largest ever single tranche deal and generating more orders than ever before. The deal should provide confidence for Ireland, which is also planning a syndication.

The high yield bond leg of the rescue package for cruise company Carnival is flying off the shelves in the dollar market, leading the company to increase it from $3bn to $4bn, cut pricing, and drop the planned euro tranche entirely — but the equity capital raising is proving tougher and has been shrunk by $500m.

The power of central bank buying and fund redemptions are evident this week in the European investment grade corporate bond market, where issuers have been squeezed into a narrow range of maturities as they search for cash.

L-Bank mandated banks on Wednesday for a second attempt at a two year dollar benchmark after it had to pull a deal in the same currency and maturity two weeks ago following a lack of demand. This time, it has opted for a more conventional approach of a traditional syndication and will follow a string of well received trades in the short end of the dollar curve.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary capital markets activity. The North American corporate bond market funded a staggering record $194bn of investment grade issues in March while Europe has also been busy — shaking up the league tables and yielding a surprise windfall for the very largest investment banks.

Emerging market bonds are trying to catch the same bid that has gripped investment grade markets, particularly in the US. Now, Latin America borrowers are scavenging once more for chances to print new issues.

The euro market for SSAs has returned to life in impressive style, but borrowers outside the ECB’s asset purchase programme are meeting with a chillier reception than their European counterparts.

The dollar market had looked sluggish, particularly in comparison to the volumes churned out in euros, but Tuesday's $4.5bn two year from Asian Development Bank indicates the market is back in working order.

Carnival Cruises, the world’s largest leisure travel company, is rolling the dice on a coronavirus rescue package, launching a $1.25bn underwritten rights issue, $1.75bn convertible bond, and a $3bn dual currency high yield bond.

Portugal will be hoping to mirror the success of Belgium after the latter smashed records in the public sector bond market on Tuesday with the biggest ever order book for an SSA borrower in euros. Both Portugal and Belgium have announced an anticipated increase to their 2020 funding programmes as result of the Covid-19 crisis.

Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, opened books for a three tranche bond issue on Tuesday, just over a week after raising €15bn from banks, on the assumption, its CFO said then, that there would be "no issuance in capital markets, such as commercial paper".