Standard Chartered

Two issuers from the CEEMEA region — Bulgarian Energy Holding and Ecobank Transnational Inc — have mandated banks for new bonds and are embarking on roadshows, breaking the wait-and-see mode that the market had slipped into over the last week.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, a pan-African banking group, is the only CEEMEA issuer to have publicly progressed with bond plans this week, setting the roadshow for its debut dollar bond. A syndicate official on the deal said that lead managers are confident of demand, but a rival questioned whether a single-B rated sub-Saharan issuer could reopen the market.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) on Wednesday priced a triple-tranche green bond. But the deal, comparatively smaller than recent issues at $730m equivalent, had a moment of intrigue when one global co-ordinator left the syndicate group.

Bank of China’s Luxembourg branch has signed a $1.05bn syndicated loan after launching the deal at half that amount in the latest display of lenders scrambling to allocate funds.

CCB International, a subsidiary of China Construction Bank Corp, has returned to the offshore loan market after a three-year absence for a $500m deal.

Strong investor demand for Export-Import Bank of Korea’s renminbi credit took the issuer back to the Formosa bond market on Thursday for a Rmb1.5bn ($234.8bn) outing. The transaction came just over three months after the policy bank sealed a public deal in the same market.

Chinese optical fibre developer Hengtong Group has hit the international loan market for the first time for a $100m fundraising.

General Motors’ joint venture sealed a Rmb10.4bn ($1.62bn) deal in the Chinese securitization market on June 6, marking its biggest outing so far. Bankers on the deal said the auto company wanted to bag the cash before onshore rates come under pressure in the second half of the year.

Temasek Holdings returned to the securitization market this week after a two year hiatus to woo investors into private equity funds-backed Astrea IV. Institutional investors are already in the bag. The focus now is on winning over retail accounts — the first time such a deal has been open to the city-state’s public, writes Addison Gong.

Institutional investors piled into Singapore sovereign investment arm Temasek Holdings’ Astrea IV securitization, making the deal almost four times covered. All eyes are now on appetite among retail investors, as it’s the first time a private-equity backed trade is open to the public.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s London branch issued a $1.5bn-equivalent green bond on Tuesday, becoming the third big Chinese bank to hit the offshore debt market with floating rate notes in less than a week.

Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings is set to take the securitization market to the next level, seeking three tranches of rated notes worth $500m-equivalent through Astrea IV. A local currency-denominated tranche will also be opened for subscription to retail investors later this week.