Santander

Two more public sector borrowers brought strong trades to finish a bumper week of dollar deals, both printing $1.5bn of short end dollar paper.

A glut of short end dollar issuance this week is set to ramp up on Thursday, after a pair of rare names in the currency mandated on Wednesday. The trades will follow a strong showing from Finnvera after the Finnish agency — also an uncommon name in dollars — printed its largest ever trade in the currency.

Both investment grade corporate bond new issues on Wednesday came from French issuers. Surprisingly, Total issued its first euro bond of 2017, while PSA Banque France sold its second.

ABN Amro returned to the additional tier one (AT1) market on Wednesday for the first time since its debut in September 2015 but, similar to Santander the day before, the Dutch bank was unable to tighten pricing sharply from its starting point.

Banco Santander did not price inside initial price thoughts for a perpetual non-call six year additional tier one (AT1) bond on Tuesday.

Volkswagen Leasing brought its second euro corporate bond deal of 2017 on Monday. The €2.25bn dual tranche offering took Volkswagen’s total issuance this year to €17.25bn. This is more than twice as much as General Electric, the next highest issuer by volume.

Heineken used the quieter end of the week in terms of issuance to price its second benchmark corporate bond issue of the year. The sixth benchmark issue of the year in Europe by a beer producer was the only deal in the market on Friday.

Gatwick Airport brought the second sterling investment grade corporate bond of the week on Thursday, following Pennon’s £300m hybrid on Monday.

Spanish gas distribution company NorteGas Energía Distribución was the only investment grade corporate bond issuer in the euro corporate bond market on Thursday. Its debut deal was a €1.3bn five year and 10 year dual tranche offering with order books totalling €5.4bn.

Autostrade per l’Italia, the Italian toll road operator, on Monday printed a €700m 12 year deal to finance a tender offer for up to €650m shorter dated bonds.

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting last week created a midweek pause in sterling issuance. However, once the meeting passed, Land Securities reopened the market with a £1bn pair of long dated tranches last Friday.

Gatwick Airport brought the second sterling investment grade corporate bond of the week on Thursday, following Pennon’s £300m hybrid on Monday.