Société Générale

Three eurozone sovereigns all extended their euro curves with huge order books for syndicated transactions this week in a sign of rampant investor appetite for long-dated debt.

Iliad, the unrated French telecoms company, attracted ample demand and twice increased the expected size of its bond during bookbuilding on Thursday, as syndicate bankers say the European corporate market is wide open to all types of issuer.

Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina raised $1.9bn from a two-tranche deal on Wednesday.

Cyprus attracted sold demand when it hit the market for a new five euro benchmark on Tuesday. The trade was priced with a positive yield – a rarity for a eurozone sovereign bond in this part of the curve.

Just Eat Takeaway.com, the Anglo-Dutch online food ordering marketplace, has raised €1.1bn via the sale of new convertible bonds, following rapid growth during the pandemic as more customers ordered food brought to their homes.

Hyundai Capital Services used the green label on its dollar bond to its benefit when hitting the market on a relatively volatile day, managing to find about $4.75bn of demand for a $600m transaction.

The euro public sector bond market has got off to a busy start to February. Three eurozone sovereigns have announced syndicated issues, while the European Financial Stability Facility made a €2bn intraday tap on Monday to round off its first quarter funding target.

Met Group, the Swiss energy trading company, has signed €915m of short term loans, reducing its facility for the first time for years, after ABN Amro, one of its main lenders, pulled out of this kind of financing. Met found two other banks to replace ABN but wanted to focus on price with the deal, rather than size.

In a rare sign that environmental campaigners are having an impact on the financial industry, the burden of financing the Ecuadorian Amazon oil trade has shifted between banks in the past six months. But it is clear the banking industry is supporting the trade in more ways than have yet been uncovered.

Europe’s corporate bond investors had the chance to pick up some paper from the riskier end of their credit spectrum as the week began, with Portuguese power company Energias de Portugal (EDP) and Swedish housing firm Heimstaden Bostad out with hybrid capital issues.

At this year’s Central & Eastern European Forum, Société Générale hosted the workshop titled ‘CEE central banks’ balance sheet expansion: a necessity or a risk?’. The speakers were Radoslaw Cholewinski (deputy head of fixed income at Pekao TFI), Martin Dolejs (portfolio manager, pension fund and insurance portfolios at Allianz), and Zoltan Aroksallasi (FX and rate strategist at Erste Bank), and I thank them for their insight, their knowledge, and their time. By Marek Drimal, EMEA Strategist, moderator of the workshop.

La Banque Postale (LBP) sold €500m of tier two paper this week, marking the normally rare issuer’s second sale in the format in just over three months.