Société Générale

Snam, the Italian natural gas transmission company, priced a €750m eight year bond on Tuesday, its first issue since it was added to the list of bonds that the European Central Bank will buy as part of its public sector bond purchase programme, or quantitative easing.

Russian steelmaker Evraz has been in talks with banks for a syndicated loan for some time, but bankers said this week that the firm will likely stick to bilateral loans instead.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) timed its first outing to the offshore bond market after a sovereign rating upgrade perfectly. This time around, the Korean policy bank kept money on the table to woo US investors rather than relying on strong onshore demand to be aggressive with pricing.

Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager, is seeking a valuation of €7bn to €8.76bn in its IPO, the bookbuild for which was opened today (Monday November 2), and will sell a 2% stake to Agricultural Bank of China. Goldman Sachs has joined the top line of the deal.

Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has named the banks for the $400m four year pre-export facility it signed last week, one of only a handful of Russian loans this year.

Nordea Bank received strong demand for its first tier two debt in euros since 2012 on Monday, as the primary market remained otherwise empty.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) is testing investors’ appetite for a dollar bond, its first since receiving a credit boost from Standard & Poor’s in September.

China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC) has wrapped up its second dollar deal of the year, using a keepwell agreement this time around rather than a direct guarantee. Despite the less investor-friendly structure, the company saw a huge following and managed to price the notes with little new issue premium.

Issuers and investors were baffled this week by Standard & Poor’s decision to remove equity credit from hybrid capital bonds issued by 14 corporate borrowers — a decision that almost comically summed up the often self-referential, circular and abstruse reasoning that has driven the asset class’s history.

African Development Bank brought the solitary dollar benchmark of the SSA market this week, opting for a two year deal — which may become a sweet spot as the US Federal Reserve turns hawkish.

It was a week of firsts for the socially responsible investment sector, with several issuers bringing innovations or printing record sized deals.

Amundi’s IPO has found a favourable reception in investor education, the company’s CEO, Yves Perrier, said today.