JP Morgan

The African Development Bank sold its second social bond on Wednesday, more than doubling the size of its debut effort and pushing out its maturity curve. The Basque Government will follow the supranational with an inaugural sustainable bond.

Kommuninvest printed a $1bn three year dollar bond on Wednesday, following the example set by Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) but shaving an extra few basis points from its spread.

Speculative grade investors are being tempted by higher total returns in the leveraged loan market, but lack of supply and growing demand is favoring a loosening of default protection covenants.

US pharmaceuticals company Mylan made its third visit to the euro corporate bond market in three years on Wednesday when it sold a €500m seven year deal with a €1.3bn order book.

South Africa had to contend with an unexpected widening in US Treasuries when marketing its new deal on Tuesday. The resulting sell-off in both South Africa’s curve and the rand meant that the issuer was not able to tighten pricing as much as had been anticipated, and the deal was smaller overall.

Italian energy company Enel received €3n of orders for €1.25bn of new hybrid bonds on Tuesday. This showed the insatiable appetite of investors for the product with the enhanced yield it offers and ratings agency Scope expects 2018 to record much more supply that the previous two years.

Climbing US Treasury yields and tightening swap spreads are pushing out levels in dollars, but Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) managed a successful three year trade — a good omen for an upcoming deal from Kommuninvest on Wednesday.

The volume of euro and sterling high yield bonds on sale in Europe jumped to €1bn on Tuesday, after NBG Pangaea and Premier Foods hit the market with new offerings. Meanwhile, retail high yield funds enjoyed a second week of inflows.

South Africa has opened books on its first sovereign trade this year and is looking to capitalise on goodwill towards president Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic transformation efforts. It hopes to offset the recent spread widening that has followed weakness in the rand — and in broader emerging markets — as a result of the stronger dollar.

Swedish Export Credit Corporation will bring a three week dearth of SSA dollar benchmark issuance to an end on Tuesday after mandating for a three year issue. A shift in Libor rates, swap spreads and secondary levels since the last glut of dollar supply should all make for a keenly watched trade, said bankers.

BMW Finance had to negotiate its way through a busy corporate bond market on Monday as it sold a €1.75bn 4.5 and eight year dual tranche offering. It had to pay new issue premiums of around 8bp-10bp but saw strong demand.

Texan chemicals group Kraton opened up the European high yield deal pipeline this week with a debut deal that will help refinance a dollar bond. The firm is also topping up a US loan as it looks to cut its borrowing costs.