JP Morgan

Friday’s sharp turnaround in US sentiment left some European corporate bond players unsure as to how their market might open on Monday. But the tone turned out to be positive and US chemicals company Celanese Corp was ready to take advantage.

South Africa based Growthpoint is talking a new euro-denominated bond at mid to high 2% yield, following investor meetings last week.

EN+ Group, the Russian power and metals company controlled by Oleg Deripaska, rose more than 2% in Moscow trading on Monday morning after posting its first results since its $1.5bn IPO in early November.

Cemex, Thomas Cook, Telenet and Lowen Play injected €1.7bn of bond offerings into a visible high yield issuance pipeline already populated with Pinewood and CeramTec this week.

The sterling bond market was stretched in new directions on Friday when the University of Oxford issued its first bond. It chose a 100 year maturity, much longer than the longest Gilt, and at Aaa is rated higher than the UK government.

There was no sign of a post-Thanksgiving shutdown in the CEEMEA market yet as mandates continued to roll in for a variety of issuers.

Johannesburg-listed real estate investment trust Growthpoint will next week test whether investor appetite for South African debt has been negatively affected by the series of ratings actions on the country last weekend.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan has mandated three banks for the first ever tenge senior unsecured Eurobond from the country.

UK distribution company Bunzl and UK logistics property company Tritax Big Box REIT both met with investors in the UK in the first half of this week before launching debut bond deals on Thursday, while Anglian Water Osprey Financing launched a transaction straight after an investor breakfast.

On Thursday German telecoms company Deutsche Telekom sold its third bond with a 2024 maturity, while Italian state owned railway operator Ferrovie Dello Stato issued its first green bond.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp pulled off a double-whammy this week, bagging $972.9m from equity and equity-linked investors. The trade was not only SMIC’s first time raising close to $1bn overnight, but also represented a rare offering of an Asian convertible perpetual bond. John Loh reports.

Energo-Pro became the latest high yield corporate to join the recent run of supply from central and eastern Europe on Thursday, increasing the size of its debut deal after a decent bookbuild allowed it to raise an additional €20m.