Crédit Agricole

Portugal syndicated a new 10 year bond on Wednesday, and drew parallels to deals from Italy and Spain deals earlier in the year as it aimed for a small new issue premium and an high quality order book rather than one of colossal size. But in order to avoid huge drops in the book by slashing the spread, as Italy and Spain had done, Portugal began the price discovery process at a tight level.

The short Easter week saw a timid showing of new high grade corporate issuance in the European market but investors snapped up the trades that were on screens.

Gatwick Airport got a bulging order book for its return to the senior funding market, weeks after the UK airport got chunky demand for its debut subordinated transaction.

Portugal began the price discovery process for its new 10 year syndicated bond on Wednesday close to fair value in an effort to give as much clarity to investors as possible on the final level, according to lead managers.

Italy and Portugal are the first two eurozone sovereigns out of the blocks for syndications following the Easter break, with the former looking to extend its curve by a further five years.

Deliveroo and its shareholders raised £1.5bn this week. The IPO was a dog, priced at the bottom of its range and falling 20% on its debut. But it’s hard to feel sympathy for the investors.

The European Investment Bank and Dexia Credit Local were the only two public sector borrowers to sell deals in the primary market this week as issuance wound down ahead of the Easter break.

French insurer Axa issued its inaugural green tier two bond on Wednesday and attracted a peak order book of more than €3.4bn for the €1bn deal.

Gulf corporates Ooredoo, Nogaholding and Arabian Centres sprung into the bond market this week, defying revived market volatility to raise dollar funding. The string of corporate issuance follows a similar streak from the region’s FIG issuers last week.

Dexia Credit Local was able to push the pricing of its new dollar benchmark on Tuesday thanks to pent-up demand for high quality paper in the currency.

An environmental activist institute has argued that the bookrunners of a Korea National Oil Corp $700m bond priced on Tuesday are being inconsistent with their own climate policies, and might even be taking legal risks, because of the issuer's exposure to tar sands oil production in Canada.

Play, the Polish mobile network operator, has raised a syndicated loan from European banks, according to sources, while total volumes from central and eastern Europe’s biggest economies have been low so far this year.