Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Woolworths reopened the Australian dollar corporate market with a A$1bn ($645m) dual tranche trade on Wednesday, the first from a corporate since the end of February.

Next week’s Woolworths deal, the first Australian dollar bond from a corporate since the end of February, could be a bellwether for issuance in the market.

Shandong Qingyuan Group Co, a Chinese manufacturer and distributor of petrochemical products, is in talks with lenders to delay payment on a $1bn loan sealed last September as volatile oil prices take a toll on the company’s business.

Bank of China took Covid-19-linked bonds offshore on Thursday with a dual currency two year transaction, which was offered through its Macau branch.

China’s Bank of Communications came out with a $1.95bn-equivalent three-tranche deal on Thursday. It opted for a bigger dollar portion and a slimmer offshore renminbi (CNH) bond, compared with its last outing.

Foreign and domestic banks flocked to the UK this week as they sought to take advantage of stellar funding conditions in the sterling market. Bankers said this was the first chance issuers had to benefit from opportunities in the currency following December’s general election, which removed a lot of short-term uncertainty around Brexit.

The Sonia-linked covered bond market is showing signs that it is 'maturing', with Commonwealth Bank of Australia launching a new deal in the format on Tuesday and Coventry Building Society looking to follow in the footsteps of two of its compatriots early in 2020.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) launched a new sustainable tier two on Friday. Looking to broaden its investor universe in the euro market and enlarge its tier two buffer after changes in Australian regulation, ANZ’s deal attracted orders of 2.5 times its €1bn size.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is getting ready to offer FIG investors a very rare chance to purchase green bank capital in euros, with the issuer set to hit the road for a new tier two in November.

There is a growing pipeline of subordinated bond issuance in the FIG market this week, as issuers think about their regulatory requirements and find no reason to wait in light of a recently favoruable backdrop.

Bank of China broke new ground for Asia this week with the region’s first floating rate bond linked to the secured overnight financing rate (Sofr). But a host of challenges around payment calculations and liquidity mean other issuers will be slower to embrace this new benchmark. Addison Gong reports.

SSA issuers turned towards niche currencies this week to meet a range of demand across the Australian and Canadian dollar curves. KfW and the Asian Development Bank started the week printing in Australian dollars, before the World Bank joined them in the currency while also returning to the Maple market.