Morgan Stanley

KKR, the US private equity firm, issued its first euro bond on a crowded day on Wednesday, competing with four other issuers, but that did not stop it achieving attractive execution.

The dollar corporate bond market showed its resilience this week as issuance rebounded, despite the US-China trade turmoil. “Trump, Trump, Trump,” was how one syndicate manager explained the reasons for the return of volatility as high grade credit markets see-sawed with the President’s mood swings.

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.

Vonovia, the German residential property company, returned to the market on Monday to sell €744m of new shares on an evening where markets had largely sold off because of fears about growing tensions between the US and China.

MTNs from Middle Eastern banks have flowed freely over the last week, with borrowers printing a range of currencies to take advantage of basis swap opportunities, amid little competition from European financials, say bankers.

Arabian Centres Company (ACC), the owner and operator of Saudi retail malls, has priced its IPO at the bottom of its original range, winning local support for one of the largest deals from the Kingdom in years.

Belgian brewer Anheuser Busch InBev has taken the first step toward floating its Asia Pacific operations on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The strength of corporate bond demand, after falls in stockmarkets engendered by the US's hardened stance on trade talks with China, was tested in the US on Wednesday by a $20bn issue for IBM. In Europe, the test came on Thursday, as five companies finished roadshows and issued. So far the signs are very encouraging - good news for the clutch of companies still on the road.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

European corporate bond investors showed they were hungry for paper on Thursday, despite the gloom infecting equity markets this week about the prospect of a restart to the China-US trade war. A flurry of issuers came to the market, hot from roadshows, and got plenty of over-subscription while slashing their spreads by 20bp to 30bp.

US president Donald Trump caused turmoil in global financial markets this week, after threatening to ramp up tariffs on Chinese goods. But although Trump stirred up trouble, Chinese start-up Luckin Coffee was not put off from brewing a US IPO. With heavy-hitting institutional investors already piling in to the offering, the company looks on track to raise more than half a billion dollars. Jonathan Breen reports.