Morgan Stanley

Equity investors had their fill of block trades in Hong Kong on Thursday, with three completed successfully — and two even managing to raise more than intended.

Chinese conglomerate Tencent brought cheer to the dollar bond market on Thursday as it tapped pent-up demand with a four-part benchmark trade that amassed a $40bn order book.

Public sector issuers rounded out a superlative week for dollars with sparkling results across the curve on Thursday. Bankers are confident that issuers wishing to print in the coming weeks should find that investor demand outweighs any of the political concerns that brought volatility to rates over the last few days.

India’s IL&FS Transportation Networks sold a Rmb900m ($138.21m) offshore renminbi bond on Wednesday, making it the first high yield issuer to seal a deal in the market in more than 16 months.

Ford Automotive Finance (China) is preparing for a Rmb4bn ($614m) deal in the onshore asset-backed securities market – the first by a foreign originator in 2018. But the carmaker is not in the mood for change in the New Year, sticking with the same format it printed in last August.

A slew of Chinese issuers are wooing dollar bond investors on Thursday, as Philippine company Petron Corp also competes for buy-side attention.

China ZhengTong Auto Services Holdings opened books on Thursday morning for an up to HK$1.6bn ($211m) capital increase.

The Inter-American Development Bank provided further proof on Wednesday that there is deep demand at the five year part of the dollar curve — but another supranational is stepping up to test the long end of the currency for the first time this year.

On Tuesday multi-tranche and green bond issuance returned to the investment grade corporate bond market, leaving just the hybrid asset class untouched in 2018. That didn’t last long, as Engie and Aroundtown launched new hybrid deals on Wednesday morning, one of which set new lows for the product's coupon and spread levels.

Puma Energy made a strong start for non-financial corporate issuers on Monday, making full use of investor familiarity with the credit — and some excess cash — to make its $750m market return.

Dollar investors had plenty of Chinese property bonds to choose from this week, with four issuers competing for their attention on Tuesday. But with no end in sight to the pipeline, companies will have to navigate the market carefully, or cough up a premium for their bonds.

PhosAgro, a Russian phosphate-based fertiliser company, is embarking on a series of investor meetings to market a five to seven year dollar bond.