MUFG

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary capital markets activity. The North American corporate bond market funded a staggering record $194bn of investment grade issues in March while Europe has also been busy — shaking up the league tables and yielding a surprise windfall for the very largest investment banks.

MUFG Bank has named Pierre Ferland as co-head of global markets for Asia, moving him over from the investment banking division.

Reliance Industries is seeking commitments from banks for a ¥38bn ($351m) Samurai loan in senior syndication. The Indian company’s deal is part of a two-tranche dollar and yen-denominated transaction worth about $1.45bn.

Kuwait's Equate Petrochemical stuck its head above the parapet this week, holding investor calls for a triple-tranche bond issue.

MUFG Securities Asia has named Mark Henderson, a veteran banker who has been with the firm for nearly two decades, as its new chief executive.

Once again, corporate bond markets have staged a recovery after a shutdown of several days as asset prices plummeted in response to the growing coronavirus outbreak. Three industrial companies plus JP Morgan issued bonds in the US on Tuesday, which “all went exceptionally well” according to a head of syndicate in London. Danone launched on Wednesday the first euro corporate issue of the week, paying a high spread but small new issue premium.

India’s Tata Steel and Birla Carbon have decided not to syndicate their chunky loans, amid reluctance from the bookrunners to sell down their positions in a slowing market for deals.

A trio of South East Asian issuers have visited the Hong Kong dollar market in the last two weeks, as a move in the basis spurred demand. Among the issuers was Korea’s state-owned mining company Korea Resources Corporation (KORES), which made its debut in the currency and in the MTN format on Monday.

Roland Domann has moved to MUFG to be part of its European sales and distribution team, just months after being hired by Nomura.

Conditions are changing so fast with the coronavirus epidemic that each day could bring a change in sentiment, but for the time being leveraged finance is staying calm and continuing to function. There is more activity in this high risk corner of Europe’s capital markets than in any other, apart from sovereign, supranational and agency bonds.

Paccar Financial, the leasing arm of Paccar, the US maker of DAF, Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, braved the European market on Wednesday to print a sub-benchmark sized bond, as syndicate officials said the market could move wider.

MUFG has put one of its co-heads of debt capital markets at risk of redundancy.