News content

Mizuho International, the London securities and investment banking arm of the Japanese banking group, has cut jobs in its capital markets business over the past week, and among those leaving is a senior DCM banker.

On Monday, the euro corporate bond market delivered its largest ever deal in December. However, on Tuesday, there was no follow-up and the dramatic fall in global equity markets has led some investors to call the end of 2018 from a new issue perspective.

Jefferies, which is in the process of a huge expansion of its emerging markets offering, has hired an ex-Goldman Sachs trader in New York.

SAP on Monday opened the month with the largest euro corporate bond ever sold in December. Tuesday then saw no new issuance, but bankers have not yet turned their attention to buying Christmas presents as a number of deals remain possible.

US medical technology company Stryker had to wait longer than it planned for its debut in the European corporate bond market, but when the chance to launch the deal came on Tuesday, it achieved the hat-trick of tranches it was aiming for with an extra one added for good measure.

French postal operator La Poste saved the corporate bond market in Europe from registering a blank week when it sold its first green bond last Friday. On Wednesday, Deutsche Post followed its peer’s lead by announcing a deal with the same tenor.

The deal agreed by Theresa May, prime minister, for the UK's exit from the European Union has brought issuance of sterling bonds, equity and loans to a juddering halt, which could extend into 2019. Nigel Owen reports.

International uproar over Russia seizing three Ukrainian navy ships last weekend did not stop Russia selling a €1bn 2.875% 2025 bond on Tuesday. But investor fears are growing ever higher over the likelihood of further US sanctions on the country. Russia’s pivot away from dollars seems to indicate the same concerns. Francesca Young, Sam Kerr and Lewis McLellan report.

Borealis, the Austrian petrochemicals maker, sold its largest corporate bond tranche on Wednesday. The deal came two days after Austrian oil and gas company OMV, which owns more than a third of Borealis, had issued its own dual tranche deal.

The last posting date for Christmas tends to coincide with the closing of the euro corporate bond market. Ahead of that coincidence this year, two postal companies have sold new bonds, after Deutsche Post followed La Poste of France’s lead.

Fears that the Russian Federation's €1bn bond issue would only find demand domestically seem to have been assuaged as a source close to the deal said well over half the deal was sold to international investors. That source also denied the deal was in any way designed to bait the West, and said its timing was simply a matter of wanting to get ahead of worsening market conditions.

The market volatility in the week of the US Thanksgiving holiday was a microcosm of where the corporate bond market has evolved to through 2018. Market volatility and lack of buying interest pushed spreads wider again, but that widening meant investors could not resist new issues for long.