Wells Fargo Securities

UK media company WPP sold a dual tranche bond this week, following its own recent trend for issuing shorter tenors with its most recent euro issues.

After a reasonable wait, investors are starting to see the more frequent investment grade corporate bond issuers return to the market. On Tuesday, French materials company Saint-Gobain and French telecoms operator Orange sold benchmark deals and UK media company WPP sold a dual-tranche issue.

The Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) found tepid investor demand for its dollar transaction on Thursday, but managed to raise $300m from the bond.

CVS Health printed the third-biggest bond deal of all time as it funded its $67.5bn acquisition of Aetna. Bankers hope that a revival in M&A activity will provide a shot in the arm for supply.

Hyundai Capital America raised $800m from a dual-tranche issuance on Wednesday, the same day that chemical giant China National Chemical Corp walked away with more than $6bn from the market.

Fresh doubt has been cast on whether the record-breaking $100bn loan package for US chip maker Broadcom will come to fruition, after a US national security committee took the unusual step of issuing a public warning against the acquisition that the funds will finance.

The low rates in Europe are making the euro high yield market an attractive option for US issuers like Belden, a St Louis-based manufacturer of telecoms equipment, which is launching a new euro bond to buy back old deals in euros and dollars. More US issuers are coming to euros, say bankers and investors.

The new issue US dollar bond market roared back to life as volatility dropped and corporates took advantage of favourable conditions with $17bn of supply coming from 19 borrowers.

The total issuance of investment grade corporate bonds in February was an underwhelming €14.8bn but the property sector has outshone all others in 2018 and this week was no different as investors had further diversification to consider.

Six of the nine investment grade corporate new issues in the last week of February were announced with a three letter acronym that, while providing clarity, served to frustrate investors keen to see greater volumes of issuance. WNG stands for “will not grow” and this week told investors that the meagre sized deals would not be increased, irrespective of demand.

Europe’s syndicated loans bankers say recent transactions highlight how cut-throat the market is for lenders, as the European Commission gets under way with a study on market practices.

Before 2017, US crowd services provider Equinix had not issued a bond in euros. But it has now visited the European high yield market three times, having completed its latest deal on Wednesday.