UBS

Nationwide Building Society stood out on another busy day in the covered bond market, shaking off three rivals to print a €1bn mortgage backed bond on Thursday in line with Lloyds and Bank of Nova Scotia.

In what was hailed as a momentous, perhaps record breaking, week in high yield finance, Japanese telecoms operator SoftBank took the crown by raising the year’s biggest Asian offshore high yield deal, writes Victor Jimenez.

Thai Union Frozen Products Public Company opened books for a Bt12.72bn ($371m) preferential public offering on July 20, following non-deal roadshows that brought positive feedback from the investor community.

China Railway Signal & Communications Corp (CRSC) started investor education for its $2bn Hong Kong IPO on Monday, July 20, becoming the first issuer brave enough to proceed with its equity-raising plans following the mainland stock market’s dramatic collapse earlier this month.

Chinese companies are really taking the euro bond market in their stride this year, with Beijing Energy Investment Holdings (BEIH) adding to the record-breaking volumes with another €300m ($326m). But unlike the euro deal from state-owned peer Beijing Infrastructure a day earlier, BEIH had to rely more on anchor orders to get its deal away.

A rare Greek IPO was announced on Tuesday, as Poseidon Containers, based in Athens, set out to raise about $230m by floating in New York, to finance purchases of container ships.

A quiet patch for block trades was broken on Tuesday evening when UBS launched an €865m accelerated bookbuild in Kone Corp, the Finnish maker of lifts — an exceptionally rare deal in the stock, which has a €20bn market capitalisation.

Three companies on Tuesday added to the prospects for corporate bond issuance in Europe this week. Bolloré and RWE are set to complete deals roadshowed in June while Eurofins scientific has given a new mandate.

Beijing Energy Investment Holding (BEIH) is set to join the string of Chinese issuers who have increasingly tapped the euro bond market this year.

Xinte Energy, a Chinese company that operates in the photovoltaic industry, is seeking a listing that could raise as much as $400m-$500m in Hong Kong, having filed a preliminary prospectus with the city’s regulator on July 20.

Ado Properties relaunched its €400m initial public offering in Frankfurt on Monday, less than a month after postponing the deal because of the Greek debt crisis.

The chief executive and other top officers of Merlin Properties, the acquisitive Spanish real estate company, have been on the road this week, for the company’s second rights issue in three months, as it seeks €1.034bn to buy Testa, another property firm.