North America

The Province of Ontario came to market for a rare sterling floater on Wednesday, sharing the UK currency market with a European Investment Bank deal.

An announcement that the US Treasury is contemplating extending its curve to 50, or even 100 years has pushed up long end yields.

Investors got some long awaited supply and poured money into new issues this week as the US investment grade market sprang back into life following earnings blackouts.

Rating: Aa2/A+/AA-

The revival of sterling bond issuance powered ahead on Thursday, as Procter & Gamble brought a £750m deal that one banker said was “as rare as Halley’s Comet”. That coincided with a £1bn covered bond from Santander and a £400m debut from Martlet Homes.

Emmanuel Macron’s topping of the first round of the French presidential election last weekend drove the best euro funding conditions for months. Public sector borrowers duly piled into the primary market. With more political risk ahead, many are racing to be 75% done for the year by summer, writes Craig McGlashan.

The dollar market has enjoyed yet another strong week, with one issuer breaking its size record and another pair matching their own. SSA bankers are readying themselves for a busy May in the currency. But despite issuers keen to push out the curve, it looks like 10 year benchmarks are off the table.

The Province of Manitoba rounded off a week of record breaking deals with a dollar trade that matched its largest ever benchmark in the currency and helped it diversify away from its North American investor base.

China Rapid Finance decided to cut price guidance for its US IPO in order to secure a high quality anchor investor, raising $70m instead of the original target of up to $115m, according to a banker on the deal.

Elation in the euro markets after the first round of the French presidential election at the weekend continues to wash over the public sector bond markets, with the Province of Quebec selling its largest ever benchmark in the currency and Spain printing €5bn of inflation-linked paper.

Peer-to-peer lender China Rapid Finance is eyeing the bottom half of guidance for its US IPO, giving it a possible size of up to $105m, according to a banker working on the deal.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has named four new members to its board of directors.