Nomura

The sterling market is on fire for SSA borrowers. Attractive conditions and investors with cash to deploy have come together to produce some of the market’s most impressive deals of the year, with more in the pipeline.

Inter-American Development Bank won a big reception on Thursday as it completed its benchmark funding for the year with a five year dollar global that rode on the coattails of a similar trade by Asian Development Bank a day earlier. Agence Française de Développement also made a triumphant return to dollars after a pulled trade in February, as it matched its largest ever deal in the currency for size.

Inter-American Development Bank will on Thursday attempt a five year dollar benchmark, copying a Wednesday deal from Asian Development Bank that bankers on the trade said was the best dollar deal since the summer. Agence Française de Développement is also out with a dollar benchmark — its first since a pulled trade in February.

Public sector borrowers are finding healthy seams of sterling funding in various tenors, as Council of Europe Development Bank lined up to follow a Wednesday trade by KfW — and there are rumours that more supranationals could consider deals in the currency. Attractive arbitrage levels and large redemptions are helping drive supply and demand respectively, said bankers.

A pair of European agencies landed in euros on Tuesday, attracting huge books and tightening their spreads, indicating a promising backdrop for NRW.Bank’s green bond scheduled for Wednesday.

Two levfin issuers, Sebia and Refresco, this week added €3bn to an already large pipeline of euro and dollar-denominated leveraged loans being touted around a bustling European market. But some bankers are fretting that underwriters face little room for mistakes if pricing widens.

The European leveraged finance market is set to contend with loan deals approaching €4bn for the start of September. Over half of that is for the German pharmaceutical firm Stada — a deal that could help make funding more expensive for everyone else, writes Victor Jimenez.

SSAs enjoyed soaring conditions in the sterling market this week after a summer lull, which bankers attributed to a big Gilt redemption and sterling’s weakening against other main currencies.

Public sector issuers navigated a choppy start to the week to print strong dollar trades, but some SSA bankers worry that the problems that brought that early volatility are far from resolved.

The revival of equity-linked bond issuance in Europe was crowned on Thursday by the launch of one of the biggest deals this year, for ANA Holdings, which owns All Nippon Airways. Nomura was the bookrunner.

Japan Finance Organization for Municipalities breezed through a short dated dollar trade on Thursday, picking up a more than doubly subscribed book at what bankers away from the trade put at a low single digits concession.

Kommunalbanken made what bankers away from the trade described as an “excellent” choice of tenor with a dollar benchmark on Wednesday as it tightened pricing from guidance — something that not every issuer has been able to achieve in the currency over the last two weeks. Meanwhile, a Japanese issuer mandated for a trade that bankers expect to go well despite geopolitical tensions in Asia.