JP Morgan

Sovereign, supranational and agency bankers are braced for a busy week of issuance, as demand for paper soars in the wake of the European Central Bank’s unveiling of a series of measures which have butchered rates last Thursday.

Korean issuance is picking up in the wake of the Republic of Korea’s dual tranche offering on June 3. Latest out the blocks include Korea National Oil Corp. which is meeting investors for a euro-denominated bond, and Korea Gas Corp, which is looking at dollars.

PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) opened the books for a perpeptual non call five dollar hybrid on Wednesday. An active player on the M&A front, the Thai borrower is opting for the structure to strengthen its financial position.

Brussels Airport, which issued a €500m seven year bond last June, will issue a new sub-benchmark deal this week, prompted by reverse enquiry.

All3Media, the UK producer of television programmes, has raised an aggressive £400m-equivalent loan package backing its takeover by Discovery Communications and Liberty Global, but left market participants doubting that the deal had generated much enthusiasm among investors.

Toronto Dominion Bank and Standard Chartered both took to the short end of the curve with floating rate deals on Tuesday pulling off trades despite heavy demand for longer dated bonds and riskier credits following the announcement of the European Central Bank’s rate cuts last week.

China Minmetals Corporation returned to the offshore renminbi market with a three year bond on Monday. Despite coming in the shadow of a record month for Chinese CNH supply, the unrated transaction was well bid and priced through the issuer’s existing curve.

Suez Environnement, the French water and waste management group, is aiming to issue a new hybrid capital bond to refinance its €750m hybrid from 2010, which becomes callable in September 2015.

TSB’s low return on equity and worries about the UK market mean that Lloyds Bank's IPO of the British commercial bank will be offered at a discount to book value when the sale is completed later this month.

JP Morgan has promoted Rohit Chatterji to head of emerging Asia M&A to replace Rob Sivitilli, who will be retiring from the industry after 18 years with the bank.

China Minmetals Corporation has opened guidance on a new dim sum bond and joins China Metallurgical and Sinopec in the market in what looks a bumper day for Chinese SOE issuance.

Solar panel manufacturer Trina Solar successfully raised a combined $247m by pricing a concurrent placement and convertible bond offering on June 6 despite a turbulent market backdrop as Chinese solar companies were slapped with new import taxes by the US.