Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group

Genius Auto Finance Co priced its first auto ABS outing of the year under the Generation series on Thursday. It sold the senior class A1 tranche of the Rmb4.7bn ($726.8m) transaction at a negative spread to the onshore pricing benchmark and inside a comparable trade from this week.

International Public Partnerships, a UK listed infrastructure investment company, has refinanced a £400m loan to extend the maturity and switch the margin from the Libor benchmark, as lenders hope that other borrowers do the same rather than cram into the second half of the year.

Toyota Motor Finance (China) Co has sealed the senior tranches of its auto ABS deal at negative spreads to onshore benchmarks thanks to strong backing from Japanese investors, putting the post-Chinese New Year securitization market on strong footing.

Non-European names hit the euro market this week with a trio of US companies and Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) raising debt. But syndicate bankers say rising US rates are still way off the sweet spot that would make the euro market irresistible for all Reverse Yankee issuers.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) had a storming outing in the bond markets this week, easily raising €1bn in Europe and $8bn on the other side of the Atlantic to refinance M&A bridge debt.

Private equity firm Blackstone has launched into syndication a $360m loan that will support its leveraged buyout of India’s Piramal Glass.

Philippines’ SMC Global Power Holdings, the power unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp, has returned to the loan market for $200m.

EP Infrastructure, the Czech Republic-headquartered energy infrastructure group, launched a euro bond on Tuesday. By midday, books had almost reached €3bn.

US corporate bond bankers have shrugged off concerns that the steepening of the US Treasury curve could spell problems for credit, after the 10 year yield closed at 1.29% on Wednesday and the 30 year broke though 2%.

Galaxy Pipeline Assets, the group of international investors that provided Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) with $10bn in a pipeline partnership deal last year, has re-entered debt capital markets just months after it sold what some involved in the deal claimed was one of the biggest project bonds ever.

SMBC Nikko wants to grow its capital markets and advisory business in EMEA, which is smaller than its parent’s heft in the loan market. It has hired Anthony Bryson, a former NatWest Markets and BNP Paribas banker, to lead the push.

Anthony Bryson has joined SMBC Nikko Capital Markets as deputy president and head of capital markets and advisory Emea in London.