Natixis

Islamic Development Bank released price guidance for its dollar benchmark sukuk on Wednesday and leads are expecting to price the note on Thursday.

China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) has raised $6.4bn from a six-tranche transaction in euros and dollars to refinance debt taken for Syngenta’s acquisition. The issuer was willing to pay up to take more on the long end of the curve, with the juicy premium summoning a book of more than $15bn at its peak.

Combined books of $9.5bn enabled the Republic of Senegal to both print the tightest ever dollar 30 year dollar bond from a sub-Saharan African issuer (ex-South Africa), and to revise guidance by 50bp for its euro debut on Tuesday.

Price talk for Senegal’s new euro bond prompted fierce debate on Tuesday morning. Based on guidance, syndicate bankers away from the deal questioned the cost of the deal compared with a dollar issue, though the strong pricing result in euros may have put the debate to rest.

A pair of chunky fundraisings in Asia have been lapped up by banks, as China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group look to wrap up syndications next week.

On Friday, Unilever Spreads released guidance for its €4.6bn equivalent loan to fund its acquisition by KKR. French telecoms infrastructure group Circet also launched a smaller deal, a €570m loan package for its buyout by Advent. But investor demand isn't satisfied yet, say some market participants.

RCI Banque was one of the first issuers to sell a corporate bond in 2018. It has returned two months later with a dual-tranche offering which took advantage of demand for floating rate notes as well as fixed rate paper.

Six of the nine investment grade corporate new issues in the last week of February were announced with a three letter acronym that, while providing clarity, served to frustrate investors keen to see greater volumes of issuance. WNG stands for “will not grow” and this week told investors that the meagre sized deals would not be increased, irrespective of demand.

Republic of Senegal could well have timed to perfection its plans to issue a euro-denominated bond with EM investors calling this the “last chance” for EM borrowers to take advantage of extraordinarily low interest rates in the currency.

Finnish residential property developer Kojamo and French care home operator Orpea added to the geographical diversity of the property company corporate bonds sold this week with a €500m seven year deal, while frequent issuer RCI Banque sold a dual tranche offering

Nexity, the French property developer, increased a convertible bond issue from €180m to €200m on Tuesday after receiving strong demand.

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has mandated eight banks to roadshow a benchmark five year Reg S sukuk with a view to adding a 10 year tranche as well.