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On Thursday, Northumbrian Water brought the first sterling corporate bond of the week when it announced a £300m 10 year deal. It is almost a year to the day that it priced an identical deal.

A long awaited framework for Panda bond issuers is likely to be finalised by the People’s Bank of China by the end of the year, GlobalRMB has learned.

The renminbi held its spot as the world’s fifth most active payments currency in August, according to Swift’s RMB tracker. The news came just a day after Swift said it will start displaying China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System’s (Cips) data on its system.

Both investment grade corporate bond new issues on Wednesday came from French issuers. Surprisingly, Total issued its first euro bond of 2017, while PSA Banque France sold its second.

Tuesday proved to be hybrid day in the European corporate bond markets with Aroundtown tapping its dollar hybrid bond for €200m while German electric utility, RWE, announced it was tendering for up to €550m equivalent of its own equity-like debt.

US machinery manufacturer, John Deere, returned to the euro corporate bond market on Tuesday, selling its second deal in September. The €500m five year deal was issued by the company’s John Deere Bank entity.

Australian pallet and container provider Brambles must think good things come in threes. Having made euro investors wait three years for its last deal, in 2014, it finally returned to the single currency market on Tuesday, printing a deal with virtually no new issue premium.

Hang Lung Properties is preparing its first Panda bond, aiming to raise Rmb2bn ($302.7m) from a three year note on the interbank market.

Volkswagen Leasing brought its second euro corporate bond deal of 2017 on Monday. The €2.25bn dual tranche offering took Volkswagen’s total issuance this year to €17.25bn. This is more than twice as much as General Electric, the next highest issuer by volume.

Heineken used the quieter end of the week in terms of issuance to price its second benchmark corporate bond issue of the year. The sixth benchmark issue of the year in Europe by a beer producer was the only deal in the market on Friday.

In an unusual debut in the Panda bond market, television manufacturer Skyworth approached investors with an equity-backed note. The effort grabbed attention and helped Skyworth bag Rmb2bn ($303.6m) – the maximum it could raise – from a five year non put three on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on September 19.

A leading Chinese think tank recommends regulators loosen control over the renminbi’s’ exchange rate, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) calls for the opening up of the domestic agricultural commodity futures market, and China International Payment System (CIPS) adds four indirect participants.