Pre-migration untagged articles

Investors in Asia and the US bought large triple-A dollar vanilla private placements this week, while triple-A paper in Hong Kong dollars retained its popularity.

Bank of England took the limelight in the dollar market this week. The eagerly awaited $2bn three year issue, led by BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Morgan Stanley, drew orders of $3.7bn before books were closed and pricing was set at mid-swaps plus 37bp, well inside 40bp area guidance. EDC is in the market with a three year at plus 40bp and SFEF is expected with a similar trade shortly. Read EuroWeek on Friday for coverage of all SSA transactions.

Are big syndicates the way to go when looking for size? The success of EIB suggests it is as it allowed the supranational to issue its first Eu5bn Earn since October 2007. The fact that it paid a clearing price obviously helped. Led by Calyon, Deutsche, HSBC and JP Morgan with the help of a co-lead group of 21, the deal was sold to over 300 investors. But there was plenty of money to go round since at the same time, Eu5.25bn of deals for ICO, Kingdom of Denmark and NRW.Bank were easily absorbed.

Mexico’s Cemex failed to impress investors over the last fortnight with its proposed $500m bond, pulling the deal on Monday. Read EuroWeek this week to find out the full story behind the bond’s cancellation and what it means for other emerging market companies planning to issue in the debt markets.

Nidera, the Dutch commodities trader, has launched a $1bn loan via ING and Rabobank. The move comes hot on the heels of deals from rival companies ED&F Man and Trafigura, both of which have attracted strong demand. Find out more details later this week in EuroWeek.

Cash calls from the natural gas sector are set to hit equity markets with deals from Spain’s Gas Natural and Italy’s Snam Rete Gas. The two companies are aiming to raise Eu3.5bn each and have strong support from their investors. Mediobanca will underwrite the remainder of the risk for Snam Rete, while a syndicate made up of seven joint bookrunners is mandated on Gas Natural. Can the market absorb the constant flow of rights issues? Read EuroWeek on Friday.

The economic and monetary affairs committee of the European Parliament voted on Monday to approve retention and disclosure requirements for securitisation, but introduced an alternative of providing an “explicit and unconditional” warranty that due diligence warranty. EuroWeek finds out what this new proposal will mean in practice if passed by the full parliament in April.

After the glut of issuance comes the period of digestion and the European corporate bond market is certainly quieter this week. In a less liquid market, preparation is key, and borrowers must ensure that their investors are well primed before announcement. Yesterday (Tuesday), Dutch chemicals firm DSM exemplified this well prepared approach, thoroughly pre-marketing its Eu500m five year transaction. There are many other borrowers out on non-deal roadshows, including German pharmaceuticals firm Merck, and to find out all about the pipeline, read EuroWeek this Friday.

Lloyds Banking Group and Dexia Crédit Local have bucked the recent trend in the government guaranteed market and attracted vast order books for their transactions, allowing for a tight pricing. Not all issuers are having such luck as Caixa Nova will likely find out this week when it starts marketing its deal. The issuer is expected to price wider than recent Spanish issuers with the unconfirmed talk being 85bp-90bp over. To find out more about these issues, reads EuroWeek this week

The Markit LevX indices continues its descent, dropping to historical lows of 67.39/68.54 yesterday (Tuesday). With some of the major LCDS players having exited the market, and secondary cash loans market not looking like it will recover soon, EuroWeek asks if there is any use for loan CDS anymore.

Roche has done it again. This time, the pharmaceutical company has taken Sfr4bn out of the market in a six month deal at about 68bp over Libor — a low price for a corporate bond, irrespective of the ultra-short maturity. At Sfr4bn this is the biggest single tranche deal on record to hit the Swiss market. Read EuroWeek on Friday to find out the secret of Roche’s success in Swiss francs and whether or not it has created a new benchmark for size.

Less than one half of the shareholders in commercial property business Workspace participated in the company’s £87.2m rights issue, making it the second deal to flop in the UK this year after SVG capital. Only 49% of Workspace’s shares were taken up, meaning that underwriters NM Rothschild, Panmure Gordon and Investec will be left with £44.5m worth of stock on their books. Have investors had enough of property sector cash calls? Read EuroWeek on Friday.