NatWest Markets
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Barclays and Natwest Markets have come first and second in league tables for cross-border activity in the US private placement market. As US private placements become more popular in the UK, British banks have strengthened their status in the market. -
CaixaBank took advantage of strong market conditions to issue a €1bn seven year senior preferred transaction on Tuesday with strong demand allowing the issuer to price flat to its curve. At the same time, RBS opened order books for a dollar-denominated five year senior deal.
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Lloyds Bank and National Westminster Bank issued exceptionally well subscribed covered bonds respectively in euros and sterling on Monday as Virgin Money announced roadshow plans for its debut deal. The three borrowers took advantage of the UK Parliamentary vote to avert a ‘no deal’ Brexit.
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US company FIS is buying the formerly RBS-owned Worldpay in a debt-funded $43bn transaction, a deal that will form one of the biggest financial services technology and payment companies in the world.
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The exceptionally strong demand in Europe’s corporate bond market has remained unaffected by the turmoil in the UK’s Parliament, as MPs vote night after night on repeated motions that could determine the country’s future inside or outside Europe. On Thursday, two issuers attracted huge books: Marsh & McLennan Companies, the US insurance and investment services group making its debut in euros, and Incommunities Group, a Leeds-based housing association, in sterling.
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Public sector borrowers in the euro SSA market received strong demand in both the short and long ends of the curve on Tuesday. KfW took advantage of the blistering conditions to sell its first euro benchmark with a three year maturity since 2015, while Société du Grand Paris (SGP) sold its biggest ever bond.
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Société du Grand Paris (SGP) mandated banks on Monday for its second benchmark green bond, following its debut last October. Meanwhile, KfW hit screens for a long three year benchmark, the agency’s third benchmark in euros this year.
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KfW sold a tap in sterling on Monday with lead managers maintaining that the choice of an intraday execution was “key” ahead of a vote in UK parliament on prime minister Theresa May’s revised Brexit deal.
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Telefónica, the Spanish telecoms group with €55bn of debt, came to the euro market on Tuesday to refinance two of its hybrid capital bonds. It launched a tender offer for the pair, which now total €1.3bn, and a hybrid new issue to replace them, tacking on opportunistically a 10 year senior bond issue.
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Achmea, the Dutch insurance holding company, has signed a €1bn sustainability-linked refinancing loan, in what one bank said was the first deal of its kind in the country's insurance sector.
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The Asian Development Bank broke two records on Thursday as it printed its biggest sterling deal to date and took non-UK SSA issuance in the currency to a record level for a half year. Supply is likely to take a breather next week owing to some crucial Brexit votes in the UK Parliament, but SSA bankers are confident the market will not take long to spark back into life.
