Nomura

The prospect of a far-right leader becoming president of France rocked government bond markets this week. It led to a rare pulled French agency deal and will cause the country’s banks problems with their own huge funding needs. But as other issuers in eurozone countries facing elections showed, the picture of the risks ahead is complicated. Craig McGlashan reports.

Most of Asia's equity capital markets were still waking up from the post-holiday slumber this week but bankers in India were on their toes, with IPO activity in the country continuing apace.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten showed that investors in its dollar bonds are not overly concerned about an upcoming Dutch general election, as it priced a bond on Wednesday that was just $250m short of its record size in the currency. More public sector dollar supply is set for Thursday, after Asian Development Bank hired banks for a five year global benchmark.

Two public sector borrowers had very contrasting fortunes with no-grow three year dollar bond issues on a volatile Tuesday.

Shares of India’s second largest stock exchange BSE traded up 49% on their debut on Friday, following the hugely successful Rp12.4bn ($184.1m) IPO in January.

SSA bankers are gearing themselves up for another round of dollar supply next week after the currency’s record breaking January. Buoyant conditions even allowed one issuer to bring a bulky benchmark, despite this week’s public holidays in Asia.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (PBB) eschewed cheap four year financing provided by the European Central Bank (ECB) under its long term refinancing facility to issue a 4.5 year Pfandbrief on Wednesday. The short and rarely issued tenor was easily absorbed and offered almost 52bp more than Bunds, in contrast to a French covered bond issued on Tuesday.

VodafoneZiggo completed a bumper refinancing deal on Wednesday as several other leveraged finance borrowers came to market with euro deals, relentlessly pushing the market's repricing trend further.

Few Indian IPOs can boast of having $6.4bn in excess demand, but BSE is one of them. The Bombay stock exchange operator completed bookbuilding for its Rp12.4bn ($182m) float this week, an extraordinary end to a sale first mooted over a decade ago. The pressure is now on its larger rival to do just as well, writes John Loh.

India’s BSE could not have wished for a sweeter end to its Rp12.4bn ($182m) IPO, which on Wednesday closed hugely oversubscribed.

While many of the main euro issuers have already scored their big January benchmarks, the pipeline of euro issuance is growing increasingly congested, although the range of maturities on offer should allow borrowers to avoid treading on each other's toes.

Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) has become the latest issuer from the country to venture offshore, opting for a Reg S only format to speed up execution.