Crédit Agricole

Crédit Agricole landed at an extremely tight level on Wednesday morning as it made its social bond debut with a seven year senior non-preferred deal, following in the footsteps of last week's near zero yield print from Svenska Handelsbanken.

BP, the oil major, was joined at the long end of the bond market on Tuesday by railway company Deutsche Bahn, as issuers take advantage of low spreads to stretch out their debt maturities.

The UK’s SSE Renewables and Norway’s Equinor, two energy companies, have signed what lenders say is the largest ever offshore wind project financing, a £5.5bn package for a wind farm off the UK coast.

BP, the UK oil major, and car rental company Sixt have hired banks for new bonds as the end of year issuance window looks set to stretch into next month.

Snam, the Italian gas network company, has reinvigorated the transition bond market, servicing investors unable to buy sustainability-linked bonds.

Market participants expect a sluggish start to the week but are hopeful that a favourable window might tempt a few names to bring deals forward. Up first is Crédit Agricole, which is preparing to make its first foray on to the social bond circuit.

French hotels group Accor this week became the latest issuer to tap the convertible bond market for financing in the wake of the rally in value stocks following positive Covid vaccine news in early November.

Hera, the Italian utility, had the market to itself on Thursday, as corporate bond supply fell. But syndicate desks were split over whether this week’s roaring demand could encourage other opportunistic issuers to the market well into December.

Two public sector borrowers hit the euro bond market on Wednesday, raising what might well be the final benchmark funding of 2020.

Shopping mall operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield priced a €2bn dual tranche bond from €7.2bn of demand on Wednesday, after fixed income investors were left unfazed by its shareholders blocking a rights issue earlier this month.

Hong Kong Broadbank Network has increased a loan to HK$5.5bn ($709m) after attracting 20 participants during syndication.

Carmila, the French shopping centre owner, rode the positive sentiment generated by news of another promising Covid-19 vaccine on Monday to launch a sub-benchmark bond. Bankers expect such opportunistic, small scale deals to dominate corporate issuance for the rest of the year.