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The total issuance of investment grade corporate bonds in February was an underwhelming €14.8bn but the property sector has outshone all others in 2018 and this week was no different as investors had further diversification to consider.

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

The Government of the Emirate of Sharjah has mandated five banks for a benchmark dollar sukuk — its first note in that market for over two years, though it did sell a Panda bond as recently as last month.

Dongfeng Nissan Auto Finance will be returning to the Chinese asset-backed securities market on March 8 with a Rmb4.5bn ($710m) dual-tranche deal on the interbank market — the largest transaction by a foreign name originator so far this year.

China's banking watchdog has scrapped approval requirements for foreign banks on a series of business lines, including for launching so-called ‘offshore wealth management services’. But banks will not benefit from the change unless China also relaxes its tight grip in other areas, such as control on capital flows, lawyers and analysts said this week.

Slovenia printed €1.25bn by way of a triple tranche euro bond tap on Wednesday from a book of €4bn, paying small new issue premiums. Marjan Divjak, director general in Slovenia’s Ministry of Finance, said that the country is “more or less done” in the international bond markets for the year.

French commercial property company Carmila returned to the investment grade bond market after two years away and received a positive response from investors for its longest maturity to date.

Books for the Republic of Slovenia’s triple tranche euro bond tap were in excess of €3.6bn by lunchtime on Wednesday, with final spreads having been set for each clip. The deal is part of a liability management exercise that swaps out short dated dollar debt for longer euro denominated paper.

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.

The State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine printed its local currency bond on Tuesday, but needed to pay an eye-watering 16.5% coupon to do so.

Seven investment grade corporate deals in the first three days of this week kept investors busy doing their credit work, but the lack of new issue volume has left investors still hungry for more.

French electrical equipment manufacturer Legrand used the same no-grow approach as on its previous two deals for the only new issue in the investment grade corporate bond market on Monday.