Morgan Stanley

Saudi Aramco is making a splash with its bond market debut, gathering a staggering $85bn of orders for a six tranche deal expected to exceed $10bn.

Three Chinese property companies battled in the primary market on Monday with competing supply. While high yield issuers have been able to sell bonds at ultra-tight prices of late, the weight of supply has started to force issuer’s to pay more to borrow.

USJ Açucar e Alcool, the Brazilian sugar and ethanol company, is giving bondholders an extra two weeks to receive the early bird price in a debt exchange that Fitch says is likely needed to avoid default.

LG Chem, the chemical and battery producing arm of South Korean group LG, launched its first euro and dollar bonds this week, after a long sojourn in the won market. All three tranches, which were also green bonds, were heavily oversubscribed.

Bookrunners on Dubai-based payments company Network International will close books on the IPO a day early, and have increased the size of the offering, after receiving huge demand for stock.

Brazilian steel producer Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) is hitting the road ahead of a proposed new issue, just a month after investors told GlobalCapital that an impressive rally in the company’s debt made it a strong candidate to tap bond markets.

The World Bank has launched a bond to highlight the challenge of plastic waste in oceans. Oceanic plastic waste has been the centre of debate this week after a pregnant sperm whale was washed ashore in Italy after dying from gastric shock from ingesting 22kg of plastic.

Shares in Takeaway.com, the Dutch online food ordering market place, rose as much as 3.1% on Friday after Morgan Stanley completed a €212m delta placement of the stock as part of a funded collar transaction with Delivery Hero.

The Republic of Panama is looking to deepen its local bond curve with its first Euroclearable domestic deal, with the small Central American country set to take an unusually prominent role in Latin American primary bond markets in the coming weeks.

French construction company Vinci took advantage of a lull in supply and favourable financing conditions to make its long-awaited dollar market debut.

Smaller financial institution issuers have been welcomed back to the European bond market in recent weeks, after their hopes of raising deeply subordinated capital were dashed by turbulent market conditions in late 2018. But they are not taking chances this time, seeking comfort in using the support of just one investment bank rather than a group of bookrunners.

Indications of interest for Saudi Aramco’s planned bond issue were understood to have topped $15bn on Thursday morning in London, with three days left of the roadshow still to run. Contrary to press reports, investors have been told on the roadshow that the cash raised will not be used directly to fund the acquisition of Saudi Basic Industries Corp, as that is not expected to take place for another six to 12 months, writes Francesca Young.