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China Merchants Port Holdings sealed its first Panda deal on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday, raising Rmb500m ($79.5m) from a three year bond. The red chip issuer will take the proceeds offshore to finance its Belt and Road Initiative-linked purchase of the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka.

Unilever showed how resilient the investment grade corporate bond new issue market is on Monday with €4.9bn of orders for its deal against a backdrop of falling stockmarkets. Further falls in equity prices led to an empty day in the European new issue market on Tuesday, but syndicate desks are optimistic about upcoming issuance.

As China's domestic bond market continues to suffer from a deleveraging campaign, Sino-Ocean Property Holdings is again turning to the Panda market for funding – less than two weeks after it last tapped the asset class.

Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever has become known in the corporate bond markets for its multiple tranche deals. On Monday it announced its third such trade in the last three years and investors showed they still have plenty of appetite for the name, helping the company print its largest ever deal.

China launches onshore trading for Thai baht, NPC chairman says Hong Kong remains important to China’s effort to promote the renminbi, and China Construction Bank opens a new branch in Auckland.

Despite the latest bout of negative publicity surrounding it having used monkeys in emission tests lingering in the press, investors were still keen to buy Volkswagen’s new sterling corporate bond on Friday. The German car maker got over £500m of orders for the 4.5 year fixed rate deal.

AMAG Leasing, the Swiss vehicle lessor, priced two new Swiss franc bonds this week. A Sfr150m (€129m) five year transaction on Monday was followed by a Sfr100m two year on Friday.

China agreed to $12.8bn of deals with the UK during the British prime minister’s state visit, RMB returns as the fifth most used global payments currency, and Aberdeen Asset Management grabs Rmb5.3bn ($842.8m) new renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) quotas.

Singapore's GLP will approach Chinese investors on Monday with a nine year Panda bond, one of the longest-dated deals ever to feature in the asset class.

It has now become common for bond issuers to stress their 'Belt and Road' credentials. But China Merchants Port has become one of the first issuers to get the official blessing to use the term.

IBM and Comcast hit the market on Thursday to get February off to a flying start after the quietest start to the year in the US corporate bond market since 2010.

The two 100 year corporate bonds previously sold in the sterling market had received excellent responses and, when London-based charity the Wellcome Trust became the latest member of the century club this week, it proved that investors' demand for ultra long bonds is far from satisfied.