MUFG

All four investment grade benchmark corporate bond deals that priced last week were from utilities. On Tuesday, Italian multi-services utility, Iren, and Dutch grid operator, Stedin, took the count to six.

The mandate for Reliance Industries’ $2.5bn refinancing has been revealed. The deal will consist of three portions, the bulk of which will replace a $1.5bn loan taken by one of its subsidiaries in late 2014.

Corporate bond deals are often executed on Fridays to give issuers some space in crowded weeks. However, Friday was one the busiest days of this week, with both euro and sterling investors offered long dated deals to consider.

Innogy, the German utility split off from RWE in April 2016, on Wednesday announced it would be holding investor calls about a new benchmark 10 year debut green bond issue. Later in the day, Standard & Poor’s upgraded the issuer to BBB.

Italian gas utility Snam repeated the new issue-and-tender strategy it used in 2016 as it printed its third ever 10 year bond on Tuesday. The company was not able to replicate the zero new issue premium it achieved 12 months ago, but did still price at a very tight spread.

Indian state-owned company Power Finance Corp (PFC) has sent a request for proposals for a loan of up to $300m, seven months after a failed attempt to raise $100m-equivalent from a 10 year deal.

State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) launched a $6bn debut syndicated loan this week after increasing the credit’s size and tightening pricing in response to banks’ hunger for it.

State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc) has kicked off the syndication of its first syndicated loan for $6bn, after increasing its size and tightening pricing further in response to high demand for the facility.

After three days without a deal, the euro corporate bond market reopened with nearly €2bn of new issuance from three different issuers. The auto finance lender, FCA Bank, issued a three year deal, French electrical equipment manufacturer, Legrand, sold six year bonds, while French toll road operator, Cofiroute offered a 10 year transaction.

Reliance Industries’ telecommunication arm Reliance Jio Infocomm is in talks with banks to refinance a two-tranche loan raised in late 2014.

Corporate bond issuers are targeting the second half of this week to bring their deals to market. Tuesday’s German Unity Day public holiday is being seen by syndicate managers as having more of an impact on issuance plans than Sunday’s events in Catalonia.

Volkswagen Leasing brought its second euro corporate bond deal of 2017 on Monday. The €2.25bn dual tranche offering took Volkswagen’s total issuance this year to €17.25bn. This is more than twice as much as General Electric, the next highest issuer by volume.