Bank of China sold its first ever bond out of its Djibouti branch on Monday, as Chinese issuers pour into capital markets to make up for time lost to the coronavirus pandemic.
With record borrowing programmes to complete as result of the pandemic, there will be no traditional major lull in issuance during the summer for public sector borrowers, according to bankers.
The International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) sold its second Norwegian kroner vaccine bond on Thursday, following a donor pledge from the Norwegian government.
Frontier currency bonds are offering development finance institutions (DFIs) a way to offset exchange rate risks for their clients during the coronavirus crisis. With the number of disruptive events increasing, market participants feel that frontier currency bonds could provide a prudent way to decrease risk for developing country borrowers.
After a rocky two months, the CP market is starting to normalise as spreads track in to their pre-pandemic levels and borrowers find themselves flush with cash.
Unsecured euro money market borrowing this week reached its highest level since the European Central Bank began publishing statistics in November 2017, driven by issuers scrambling for funds to combat the coronavirus pandemic, according to one analyst.
The Bank of England this week signaled that it is changing its stance and considering bringing its base rate into negative territory. But with the UK Debt Management Office (DMO) issuing three year paper with a negative yield for the first time, as well as printing £7bn ($8.56bn) of 41 year bonds, there are few worries for the SSA market.
The recent maturity of a large Nokkie line released NOK9bn ($904.5m) into the market last week, with some foreign investors eager to reinvest in attractive short end paper.
JP Morgan, the leading SSA bookrunner over the last five years, is clinging onto pole position for 2020, despite a mighty effort from Citi, which has topped the rankings since the Covid-19 pandemic began disrupting markets in earnest. But it is a far different picture in SSA MTNs with Scandinavians surging to the top, thanks to a growth in niche currency supply.