JP Morgan

Mexican oil company Pemex is set to “defend its ratings” with an imminent new issue, bond exchange and buy-back to be partially funded by a capital injection from the government.

A pair of Eastern European corporate borrowers are in the market for dollar paper on Thursday, taking advantage of excellent market conditions to secure cheap funding.

Alpek, the petrochemicals business of Mexican conglomerate Grupo Alfa, sold a $500m 10 year bond on Wednesday at the tight end of expectations to become the latest in a line of Mexican issuers to tap the primary market in September.

Mexican state-owned oil giant Pemex emphatically showed it has access to capital markets on Thursday as it received more than $35bn of orders on the way to a $7.5bn trade that could grow as existing bondholders participate in an exchange.

In the nervous last day before the European Central Bank's much-hyped monetary policy announcement on Thursday, only two corporate bond issuers brought deals. Both Orange, the French telecoms group, and Worldline, the French payments group carved out of Atos.

JP Morgan this week issued a €400m cash-settled exchangeable on LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate, in its latest synthetic outing, raising cheap funding while possibly hedging a derivatives transaction.

IHS, the Nigerian telecom towers group, hit screens on Wednesday for a dual tranche bond. It received strong demand and the leads were able to tighten the spread and add an extra $300m to the longer tranche.

The Asian Development Bank hopped on to screens on Tuesday to print a new 10.5 year green Kangaroo bond. Demand for longer dated Kangaroo bonds has been muted recently, leading to smaller transaction sizes. So introducing a green label helped the ADB feel “comfortable” with achieving its minimum issuance size, said Anthony Ruschpler, treasury specialist at the ADB in Manila.

Bank of Montreal was marketing a senior preferred bond in sterling on Tuesday, one day after Rothesay Life gave FIG investors a chance to put their money in tier two in the same currency. The Canadian issuer started its trade with a 15bp-20bp concession, according to a banker off the deal.

Armenia is the latest EM borrower to take advantage of rock bottom rates with a tender offer and new bond. The sovereign will tender a 2020 bond, financing the operation with a new Eurobond.

Investment grade corporate bond issuance has slowed right down on Wednesday, as issuers and investors are getting cautious before the European Central Bank monetary policy meeting on Thursday.

FWD Group has come to the market with yet another unusual transaction, raising $600m but seeing the bond open a whole point lower in the secondary market on Wednesday morning.