Nomura

Chinese telecommunications software provider AsiaInfo Technologies launched investor education for its Hong Kong float on Monday.

Guarantor: Swedish local government members

Kommuninvest was the sole dollar benchmark in the public sector market this week, getting in just a day ahead of Thanksgiving to reach its 2018 funding target. Dollar SSA supply is likely to be limited for the rest of the year, but there is room for "opportunistic" trades at the short end, according to bankers.

Kommuninvest took advantage of the lack of competing SSA supply on Wednesday to price a long three year dollar trade ahead of the US holidays. Meanwhile, Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has appointed banks to arrange investor calls for its annual water bond.

Nomura has poached a senior telecommunication, media and technology coverage banker from BNP Paribas.

Jefferies has appointed former Nomura and Citigroup trader Fred Jallot as head of fixed income Europe.

The US Federal Home Loan Banks system has become the latest borrower to print bonds linked to Sofr, the planned replacement benchmark for dollar Libor.

Rating: Aaa/AAA

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB) will look to fill the €1bn-€1.5bn it has left to raise this year with its annual water bond benchmark and potentially a short end benchmark. That is in keeping with the wider SSA market, where bankers expect socially responsible investment (SRI) issuance to form the bulk of this year’s final trades.

The European Financial Stability Facility has opted to tackle a part of the euro curve where KfW found substantial demand last week, with a trade that SSA bankers said should provide a steer on the health of the euro market. There was one positive sign for the sector on Monday, as a Dutch agency increased the size of an SRI bond from its initial target.

A megayacht of a trade from KfW this week suggested that potential headwinds — including the end of quantitative easing, Italy’s reckoning with the European Commission and Angela Merkel’s plan to step away from politics — are failing to sink sentiment in the euro market. But some SSA bankers warned that the trade was more just proof that KfW can float in these conditions — and that an upcoming deal for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will be a better buoy for the sector’s currents.

The Netherlands plans to join the burgeoning list of sovereign green bond issuers and could become the first triple-A rated country in the group. Whether the bond will be via syndication or the country's preferred auction method has yet to be decided. Meanwhile, two of the country’s public sector SRI borrowers were busy in the format this week.