JP Morgan

After establishing itself as a top three player in European investment banking, Citi is now making an ambitious push for the summit in its home market, writes David Rothnie.

Georgian TBC Bank printed its long-awaited $300m five year bond on Wednesday from a book of over $700m.

JP Morgan has made changes to its senior investment banking teams in Asia Pacific.

The long-awaited London-Shanghai Stock Connect faced its first test this week as Huatai Securities went on the road with its sale of global depository receipts (GDRs) on the London Stock Exchange. More issuers could follow as mainland investors hunt for opportunities to use their offshore capital, said market participants. Jonathan Breen and Aidan Gregory report.

The Republic of Korea issued a dual-tranche dollar bond on Wednesday, with the shorter dated portion carrying a green and sustainability label.

China Merchants Bank priced three year bonds on Wednesday that were split between a $600m floating rate note (FRN) and a €300m fixed rate tranche.

It's not often a €1.75bn deal from Volkswagen Leasing is overshadowed in the corporate bond market, though that was the case on Wednesday with Berkshire Hathaway's £1.75bn 20 and 40 year stormer. But Berkshire left euros clear for Volkswagen - it only had Bright Food of China to compete with.

The sterling corporate bond market has shown surprising strength for issuers in short maturities this year, but on Wednesday its traditional forte shone through — the ultra-long end, where, as so often, the curve is inverted. Berkshire Hathaway found such good funding there that it scrapped a planned euro issue altogether and raised £1.75bn in sterling.

There was high demand for dollar SSA paper as Kommunalbanken (KBN) printed at its tightest ever spread against the US Treasuries on Wednesday. Meanwhile the Province of Ontario has mandated for its own benchmark transaction.

It took just over two hours on Wednesday morning for the IPO of Trainline, the UK transport booking website, to get covered after the company opened the books on its £630m IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

The Republic of Croatia launched its €1.5bn 10 year bond on Wednesday afternoon in London from a book of €6.4bn at a level 7bp inside of fair value, according to a lead manager on the note.

TBC Bank, Georgia’s largest bank by assets, loans and deposits, has set the size for its debut dollar bond at $300m and order books for the deal are already well over that amount.