Morgan Stanley

Fundamentals are becoming more important again in Europe’s corporate bond primary market, but the power of the European Central Bank technical trade in the secondary market is quickly washing away any new issue concessions issuers have to give.

A burst of mandates on Monday confirmed what many market participants had expected: a rise in emerging market corporate bond supply.

MTN issuance out of Asia and Sweden provided some of the week’s bright spots in what was otherwise a quiet start to the year. With the public market now in full swing, bankers expect the private placement market to get up to speed in the coming weeks.

Five Chinese corporate borrowers pushed into the debt market on Thursday, capping a frantic pace of deal flow this week that set a new record for Asia bond issuance.

The dollar bond market made a fast start to the year this week, as investors showered Broadcom, the semiconductor maker, with $28bn of orders, enabling it to raise $10bn.

Yankee issuers stormed into the US dollar market to lock in record low levels of funding, despite this week’s turmoil in Washington, DC.

Non-preferred senior and holding company issuance was the focus for bank borrowers in euros this week, in what has been a slow start to the year by FIG market standards. With cheap central bank funding on offer, issuers have opted to start their funding programmes by filling their regulatory buckets.

A holding company-level deal from KBC Group on Thursday became the latest in a slew of senior non-preferred and holding company bank issuance in euros this week, in what has been a slow start to the year by FIG market standards.

London-listed transport booking app Trainline has tapped the equity-linked market for the first time by issuing a £150m ($204m) convertible bond.

Singapore-based Ivanhoe Capital listed a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) on the New York Stock Exchange this week, raising $240m after increasing the size of the float.

Issuers from Greater China flooded the market with dollar deals on Tuesday, capitalising on strong appetite from investors ready to put money to work in the new year.

Singapore-based Ivanhoe Capital, led by mining billionaire Robert Friedland, is floating a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) on the New York Stock Exchange.