Société Générale

French video game publisher Ubisoft Entertainment sold its first corporate bond on Thursday following a roadshow earlier in the week. The meetings in Paris, London and Germany helped the publisher of games including Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance build a whole new following.

Corporate bond investors were treated to a relative feast of issuance on Wednesday following a meagre €850m of supply in the first two days of the week. A trio of higher beta names offered a variety of tenors and spreads for investors to choose from.

Turkey’s Vakifbank was able to increase the size of its deal on Tuesday to $650m after strong demand propelled the book to over $1.7bn, as funding costs return to levels seen before the fourth quarter of 2017.

Public sector borrowers wrapped up a trio of short end dollar trades on Tuesday, with the tightest issuer able to grind in pricing to the lowest level from an SSA this year and the higher yielding names finding ample demand despite ending up at similar spreads. SSA bankers are confident that the strong conditions will also ring true at the long end for KfW, which has mandated for its first 10 year dollar benchmark in nearly three years.

Nordic high yield bond bankers are making a play to attract more borrowers from elsewhere in Europe, promising them access to local investors familiar with mid-cap borrowers and small deal sizes. This week, SecureLink, a Belgian software security company, listed its first bond on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

On Tuesday, Italgas was the latest issuer to benefit from the lack of corporate bond supply so far in 2018. Investors, starved of paper, have caused order books to be multiple times oversubscribed and issuers have benefitted from tight pricing as a result.

Vakifbank opened books on Tuesday on the third senior 2023 from a Turkish financial institution this year and was expected to guide investors towards a sub-6% print.

Metrovacesa, the Spanish property developer, has opened the books for its IPO on the Spanish stock exchanges with a price range that values it at up to €2.95bn.

Public sector borrowers are pouring into the three year part of the dollar curve after a series of issuers printed strong deals in the tenor last week.

Belgian cybersecurity firm Securelink, Greek cement group Titan Cement and US storage provider Algeco announced new high yield bonds totalling €1.6m on Monday, as talk of potential spread widening grows in the European high yield bond market.

Investec plc, the South African bank’s UK branch, has signed a loan for $450m — growing to more than double its launch amount of $200m after being three times subscribed.

Turkish petrochemical manufacturer and debut issuer Petkim Petrokimya Holding was marketing a five year bond at what one rival banker called a “punchy” starting point on Friday.