Pre-migration untagged articles

Yield hungry investors are turning a blind eye to Ecuador's history of volatile politics and expressing strong interest in its $750m 10 year bond offering. Bankers say that $300m of the deal is earmarked for purchase by the Venezuelan government. The deal, to be priced by underwriters JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank next week, could provide investors with the rare chance of buying bonds with a double digit yield.

Did we say that Huw Jenkins, the recently promoted head of UBS Investment Bank, should become the new national heritage symbol of Wales?

The US bond market was fixated on capital securities this week, with four issuers preparing to tap the market with more than $2.5bn of deals.

The US bond market was fixated on capital securities this week, with four issuers preparing to tap the market with more than $2.5bn of deals.

Swap spreads widened in the dollar swap market yesterday (Thursday) after strong paying from many kinds of accounts. The five year gapped out to close at 53bp, and the 10 year was trading at 56.75bp. The 30 year also traded out to 57.5bp before settling back at 55.75bp.

Bankers in London reported solid flows in the plain vanilla and self-led structured note market this week. "We've done a number of structured notes in a wide range of products, but most have been self-led and so not exactly exciting," said one banker.

Nationwide launched the first covered bond from a UK building society this week, a Eu2bn 10 year issue highly sought after for its quality and rarity. Although the trade did not blow out in the manner of some debut covered bonds — as a result of a slower market — it attracted a solid order book and was more than twice oversubscribed. Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein opened the books on Monday morning with price guidance of 8bp-9bp over; orders came in steadily, according to the leads.

Expectations were running high this week that the African Development Bank, which launched its annual global dollar bond on Wednesday, would redeem itself after a slipshod execution last year.

Thank you to the kind EuroWeek readers who called to say that we set the stage almost perfectly for the great Gunfight at the OK Corral shoot-out in Munich between Allianz, Dresdner Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.