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Germany’s largest residential real estate company, Vonovia, took its total bond issuance year to date to €3.6bn after announcing a €500m no-grow five year deal as it continued to fund its M&A activity.

British oil and gas company BP returned to the European corporate bond markets on Thursday for the first time in a year. Two euro tranches came 12 months after the company’s last euro offering, and a sterling tranche was its first in its domestic currency since August 2016.

The Kingdom of Bahrain’s five year CDS spread has plummeted as investors’ fears of the country’s inability to meet the repayment of its $750m November 2018 sukuk began to recede after a statement of support from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Two German issuers sold corporate bonds on Tuesday and, after a day many Germans may want to forget on Wednesday, mobile phone operator O2 Telefónica Deutschland made it a German treble the following day.

Argentina, Ghana, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Zambia are among the emerging markets countries most at risk of an appreciating dollar, according to Moody's.

After two successful new corporate bond issues on Tuesday, market participants were hopeful of more supply on Wednesday. However, the optimism caused by Wall Street was extinguished as Asian markets tumbled overnight.

European corporate bond markets enjoyed one of the busiest weeks of the year last week, but global economic factors mean investors are far from ready to buy everything in sight just yet.

Republika Srpska, an autonomous entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has printed its five year Eurobond, but the final size has fallen short of the hoped for €200m.

A group of investors owning Venezuela sovereign bonds and notes issued by state-owned oil company PDVSA want creditors of the two issuers to be treated equally, as analysts point out that the sovereign debt is outperforming that of the oil company.

On Tuesday, two German property-related corporate bond issuers achieved successful funding for their M&A activity by marketing their deals with no-grow approaches. Both companies priced €500m of bonds.

The Chinese Ministry of Finance (MoF) is aiming to raise Rmb10bn ($1.53bn) in its offshore renminbi (CNH) bond auctions in Hong Kong this year. The sovereign issuer is also selling $3bn of notes outside China, marking its second outing in the dollar market in two years.

The University of Cambridge returned to the sterling corporate bond market nearly six years after its debut corporate bond with the first private sector UK inflation-linked bond referencing the consumer price index rather than the retail price index. On the same day, British Telecom also issued inflation-linked bonds to its own pension fund using CPI rather than RPI. Nigel Owen reports.