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The National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah came to market for $500m on Tuesday, managing to slice 25bp from initial price thoughts to the final spread.

Toronto–Dominion Bank’s (TD) €1.75bn five year covered bond, which was issued on Wednesday, was priced 13bp tighter than where it might have launched in January when five other Canadian borrowers entered the market with similar deals.

Equity investors are being especially careful about pricing as they put in orders for the first wave of European IPOs in 2019. What has alarmed them particularly is the the see-sawing performance of Lyft, the US taxi company that floated for $2.2bn last week.

G4S, the UK security and outsourcing firm, is set to enter the US private placement market in the coming weeks, GlobalCapital understands. The deal will test market appetite for UK support services companies, after the sector has been hit by repeated blows.

The strength of demand in Europe's credit markets was amply demonstrated on Tuesday when Verizon, the US telecoms company, returned for the first time since 2017 with two tranches of euro bonds and one in sterling.

Public sector borrowers were able to achieve zero or negative new issue premiums and close books early in the euro market on Tuesday as investors piled into haven assets amid a weaker outlook for global growth.

A recent resurgence in Russian ECM has gathered pace with the announcement of two IPOs in London and the US, as oligarchs seize the opportunity of a better equity window. Rustranscom (RTC), the Russian freight transportation company, joined this wave after it filed paperwork for a London listing of global depository receipts on Monday evening.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has extended the maturity of its €6.25bn syndicated bank facility, as loan market activity picks up at the beginning of the second quarter.

The final text of the Covered Bond Directive offers the opportunity for issuers and regulators to secure covered bonds by a wider range of assets than currently permitted. Bankers said on Tuesday that the wording strikes a good balance that provides flexibility for innovation while also protecting the product’s credit quality.

Blowout books helped NIBC Bank crank in the pricing by 50bp for its first ever non-preferred senior transaction on Tuesday, with the Dutch lender eyeing a ratings upgrade as a result of its work to build out a stack of debt for the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).

The Slovak Republic kick-started its 2019 international bond issuance on Tuesday, printing a €1bn 11 year, drawing a book of over €5bn. It paid a “minimal” new issue concession, according to lead managers.

The Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index started phasing in Chinese government bonds (CGBs) and policy bank bonds on Monday. While global investors anticipated a new era for the Chinese bond market, onshore bankers insisted change would not happen overnight.