News content

The corporate bond market has stayed away from the eye of this week’s equity market correction storm, so far. Despite the enhanced volatility, €5.75bn of corporate bonds were priced. While none of the nine tranches have given investors much performance yet, equally, none have yet really underperformed.

The People’s Bank of China eyes bond market reforms, China’s FX reserves stand at $3.16tr after another month of growth, and Cambodia moves closer to replacing the dollar with the renminbi for trades with China.

The US high grade bond market remained open for business through the market sell-off this week, underlining its resilience.

American issuers old and new enjoyed the benefits of the euro investment grade corporate bond market in 2017. In comparison, 2018 has been very quiet so far, but some bankers do not expect that situation to remain for much longer.

State owned German rail operator Deutsche Bahn had a clear run at the euro investment grade corporate bond market on Thursday when it decided to sell its second bond of the year in the currency. The 15.5 year tenor it opted for extended its existing debt curve.

United Utilities became the third UK corporate issuer to sell a sterling bond in 2018, when it printed a seven year deal 24 hours later than initially planned. The company held an investor call on Monday, but then paused for a day due to global markets' volatility, before launching the deal on Wednesday.

A plunge in global stock prices at the start of the week only closed the European investment grade corporate bond market for a day before Novartis attracted €6.5bn of combined demand for a triple tranche offering.

Credit Bank of Moscow printed a $500m five year bond from a book in excess of $1.1bn on Wednesday, quelling fears of EM new issues shutting down in face of US Treasury yield rises. Domodedovo Airport looks next to print in dollars from the country while the State Transport Leasing Company has also mandated for a bond.

State owned German rail operator Deutsche Bahn had a clear run at the euro investment grade corporate bond market on Thursday when it decided to sell its second bond of the year in the currency. The 15.5 year tenor the issuer opted for extended its existing debt curve.

United Utilities became the third corporate issuer to sell a sterling bond in 2018, when it printed a seven year deal 24 hours later than initially planned. The company held an investor call on Monday, but then paused for a day due to global markets' volatility, before launching the deal on Wednesday.

The plunge in global stock prices has only caused the European investment grade corporate bond market to close for one day. On Wednesday, two pharmaceutical companies from different ends of the the ratings spectrum brought multi-tranche deals which attracted more than €9.5bn of combined demand.

The focus of most debate in financial markets this week has fallen on whether the equity market sell-off was merely a correction or something longer lasting and more serious. The corporate bond market, however, has viewed it all in a much more sanguine way.