JP Morgan

WuXi AppTec took advantage of an incredible rally in its stock price and its rarity in the equity-linked market to raise $300m from a convertible bond that was a huge hit with investors. Rashmi Kumar reports.

JP Morgan has hired Nomura’s Ryan Dawson as a managing director in its leveraged finance origination team, covering sponsors in EMEA and sponsors and corporates in the UK.

The dollar SSA market burst into life on Tuesday, but some bankers say that the tight spreads and low yields on offer mean there is little guarantee any of the trades will be easy.

ING sold a dollar-denominated additional tier one (AT1) this week, adding an influx of supply in the asset class in recent weeks. It will have the option to redeem its new bonds twice a year after the first call date, instead of the usual five years in all of its outstanding bonds.

Two CEEMEA issuers — one of which is a Russian corporate — have mandated for bonds and are heading off on roadshows, ending a barren summer for the asset class.

Mizuho issued five year and 10 year senior bonds this week, fixing spreads for the two instruments at 65bp and 67bp, respectively.

Hipgnosis Songs, a UK musical intellectual property fund, has signed a £65m revolving credit facility. But it could be one of the last bits of sterling business this year, with loans bankers saying that any sterling deals close to being signed will probably be pushed back to next year.

Rabobank launched an additional tier one (AT1) bond with a record low coupon in the euro market this week. The Dutch bank started with price thoughts of 3.625%, but tightened by 40bp to smash through the previous record of 3.5%, set by Nordea in 2017.

Three new investment grade corporate bonds appeared in Europe on Friday, a slower pace than the frenetic one of Tuesday and Wednesday, but still adding €1.6bn to the already huge total of €15.5bn in the middle three days of this week.

Issuance is starting to resume after the summer break; however, this week a booming public market drew away investor and issuer attention from MTNs. Despite this, a range of established SSA, FIG and corporate borrowers have slipped in, with deals across core, niche and EM currencies.

After two huge days of corporate bond issuance, Thursday was much quieter, with issues only from Vier Gas Transport and SBB Norden — not because the market was worse, but just because most of the issuers that wanted to come this week had crowded into the first two days.

A pair of European agencies placed taps at the long end of the Kangaroo curve this week, printing at the nine and 12 year points. Yields on these notes have fallen compared to previous taps, as the Kangaroo market feels the effects of a global bond rally.