North America

Thames Water sold roughly £220m of US private placement notes this January.

Rolls-Royce & Partners Finance (RRPF), a structured aero-engine lessor owned by GATX Corp and Rolls-Royce Holdings, has sold a $700m US private placement (PP). It’s the fourth time it has entered the market, and the second in 12 months.

Four covered bond issuers returned to the market on Wednesday and, in contrast to the start of the year when concessions were 5bp-7bp, none paid more than 2bp.

GlobalCapital is pleased to announce the nominees for its 2019 Americas Derivatives awards.

Citigroup opted to use the euro market on Tuesday for its first ever green bond, tapping into what looks to be strong investor demand for three year paper.

Five high yield bond issues were launched in the US on Tuesday, and at least a couple more are expected on Wednesday and Thursday - fruit of the sharp turnround in sentiment in the past fortnight. This is lifting the spirits of bankers in London, who are finding it very hard to encourage issuers into the market.

Three sterling deals hit the SSA market on Tuesday, bringing this year’s total volume to more than double last year’s and indicating that issuers and investors are yet to be put off by the confusion surrounding Brexit.

Fearful of missing out and, in the absence of competing credit supply, investors piled into six covered bonds on Tuesday with a combined value of more than €6bn.Royal Bank of Canada’s deal epitomised the state of investor frenzy as it was able to issue the largest deal of the year with a negative new issue premium.

Export Development Canada is set to become the fourth public sector borrower to issue a debut Sonia bond this year, after picking banks on Monday for a three year bond linked to the reference rate. Meanwhile, KfW will return for its second sterling benchmark of 2019, sticking with a five year maturity it issued in earlier in the month.

KBC Group was able to approach fair value with its senior offering on Monday, as the positivity of the last few sessions encouraged less frequent issuers like it and Sydbank to try the market. Other banks not yet in blackout could take advantage of the window this week.

Online property agent Shenzhen Fangdd Network Technology is looking to raise up to $500m from a listing in the US, according to a banker close to the deal.

Investors in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US can now begin to trade onshore Chinese bonds through Bloomberg terminals. The new access channel should slowly boost liquidity in China’s secondary bond market, said onshore bankers.