Société Générale

Since Danish transport and logistics company AP Møller-Maersk last visited the bond market, both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have downgraded its ratings and put them on negative watch. However, it still managed to issue its longest maturity deal so far in euros, alongside a tender offer.

Price talk for Senegal’s new euro bond prompted fierce debate on Tuesday morning. Based on guidance, syndicate bankers away from the deal questioned the cost of the deal compared with a dollar issue, though the strong pricing result in euros may have put the debate to rest.

Société Générale has announced new heads of coverage for public sector entities and financial sponsors.

A pair of chunky fundraisings in Asia have been lapped up by banks, as China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group look to wrap up syndications next week.

Russian Copper Company has signed a $250m loan with a club of banks to refinance a previous facility.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea raked in a larger than expected Rmb1.5bn ($236.5m) from an offshore renminbi bond on Friday, in a deal buoyed by Taiwanese investors’ appetite for new paper.

On Friday, Unilever Spreads released guidance for its €4.6bn equivalent loan to fund its acquisition by KKR. French telecoms infrastructure group Circet also launched a smaller deal, a €570m loan package for its buyout by Advent. But investor demand isn't satisfied yet, say some market participants.

Econocom, the Belgian provider of digital business-to-business services, shook off fears over stockmarket volatility to issue a €200m convertible bond on Thursday.

RCI Banque was one of the first issuers to sell a corporate bond in 2018. It has returned two months later with a dual-tranche offering which took advantage of demand for floating rate notes as well as fixed rate paper.

Six of the nine investment grade corporate new issues in the last week of February were announced with a three letter acronym that, while providing clarity, served to frustrate investors keen to see greater volumes of issuance. WNG stands for “will not grow” and this week told investors that the meagre sized deals would not be increased, irrespective of demand.

Republic of Senegal could well have timed to perfection its plans to issue a euro-denominated bond with EM investors calling this the “last chance” for EM borrowers to take advantage of extraordinarily low interest rates in the currency.

Banks unleashed a blizzard of floating rate bond issuance on the euro market this week, tapping into some pent-up demand from investors. But the return of the long-neglected and more defensive FRN format suggests that issuers feel as though they could be on shakier ground in the primary market this year.