JP Morgan

KfW and the World Bank brought well received socially responsible bonds to the market this week that set new landmarks for the public sector borrowers.

The EU has fined five big banks about €1.1bn in total after it found that some of their currency traders were involved in a foreign exchange cartel.

Société de Financement Local (SFIL) has picked banks to sell its first benchmark in euros this year.

Japan Bank of International Co-operation and the Municipal Finance Authority of British Columbia gave investors more ways to invest their stacks of dollars on Thursday, though syndicate bankers say the pent up demand for bonds in the currency is still far from satiated.

Books for Russian Railways’ eight year euro green bond had breached the €1.4bn mark by lunchtime on Wednesday, allowing leads to tighten pricing. A banker away from the note said the levels offered looked fair.

Kenya hit screens on Wednesday with a dual tranche bond. Investors said initial price thoughts looked generous and so the leads were able to cut the yield by more than had been expected during execution.

Chinese private education provider JH Educational Technology has set the ball rolling for its Hong Kong IPO, filing a prospectus with the city’s stock exchange, while brewing giant AB InBev has kicked off pre-marketing for a multi-billion-dollar float of its Asian assets.

Berry Global, the US plastic packaging maker, will raise bonds to finance its purchase of UK plastics maker RPC Group, it said on Wednesday. The debt raising will feature $3bn of senior secured notes in two tranches. This marks the end of leveraged finance bankers' hopes that the auction of RPC would deliver substantial new money supply to the European market.

Nordic Investment Bank funding officials considered printing its $1bn bond this week inside its curve before deciding against the ruse in order to support secondary trading, with Japan Bank of International Co-operation next in line to test the vast demand for five year dollar bonds.

Switzerland’s Transocean has amended its bank revolving credit facility to increase the size to $1.36bn, with the fallen angel offshore contract drilling services provider keeping an additional $140m in the wings on the undrawn facility.

Russian Railways has told investors that it is focusing on an eight year tenor for its euro green bond, with pricing for the benchmark expected "as early as tomorrow." The deal will be the first international green bond from the country.

The Republic of Kenya has released initial price guidance for its latest bond issue, which two emerging markets bond investors deemed generous.