Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered has hired a JP Morgan banker to lead part of its North American corporates team.

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.

Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp) became the second issuer from the Gulf to tap the offshore renminbi market this week, making this year already the biggest on record for Gulf renminbi bonds.

Standard Chartered announced solid profit growth for 2017, with the bank underlining that the rise of renminbi will continue to present business opportunities for the group, and that the currency could make up 5% of global payments by 2020.

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.

Garanti Bank and Vakifbank have joined the spring round of loan refinancings by Turkish banks.

The Government of the Emirate of Sharjah has mandated five banks for a benchmark dollar sukuk — its first note in that market for over two years, though it did sell a Panda bond as recently as last month.

Qatar National Bank and Bank of China kept the momentum going in the offshore renminbi bond market this week, with the latter’s Rmb4bn ($632m) deal the largest in nearly three years. Their success is an encouraging sign about appetite for the currency.

Investors interested in Chinese property bonds had plenty to choose from this week. Eight high yield real estate names raised more than $2.4bn in dollar bonds, with yields ranging from low-6% to over 10%.

Singaporean issuers in the dollar market are rare enough for investors, but those with a guarantee from the triple-A rated government are ever more unusual. Clifford Capital made the most of that rarity value this week, raising $300m from a government-guaranteed deal.

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has mandated eight banks to roadshow a benchmark five year Reg S sukuk with a view to adding a 10 year tranche as well.

Seplat Petroleum Development, a Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production company, is lining up its first international bond which will also be the first non-financial corporate bond from Africa this year.