HSBC

HICL Infrastructure and JLEN Environmental Assets, two London-listed infrastructure funds, this week signed ESG-linked loans that use Sonia instead of Libor. But loans bankers are still worried about the large number of deals that have not moved away from Libor, which falls out of use on December 31.

University College London has issued the first public ESG-labelled bond from the UK’s higher education sector, which it priced flat to fair value.

Portuguese insurance company Fidelidade is looking to sell a tier two bond this week, three years after first exploring the idea of issuing a subordinated debt instrument.

French banks and foreign rivals are slugging it out in France’s corporate finance boom, where proximity to the government is an advantage, writes David Rothnie.

European banks are trying to lock in funding at longer maturities as they consider whether credit spreads have reached a low point. But demand is less certain at the long end of the market, and some investors are pushing for a higher premium to reflect duration risk.

AstraZeneca, the UK drug maker, hit the euro market on Wednesday after printing $7bn across the Atlantic a day earlier. The borrower is building up funds to pay for its $39bn acquisition of US rival Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

The UK issued a £4bn index-linked Gilt maturing in 2039 on Tuesday, experiencing hot demand as investors flocked to secure protection from the threat of inflation.

CaixaBank was set to launch its first sterling bond on Tuesday as it dipped its toes into a market that is now on course for its busiest week this year to date.

JLEN Environmental Assets, an infrastructure fund, has signed a £170m-equivalent multicurrency sustainability-linked revolver, becoming the latest UK infrastructure company to switch to Sonia as its interest benchmark for sterling drawdowns.

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi raised $2bn on Tuesday, in a deal that bankers said achieved one of the largest negative new issue premiums on any sovereign dollar investment grade bond so far this year.

Zhongyu Gas Holdings, a Hong-Kong listed natural gas distribution company, pulled its debut dollar bond on Tuesday evening after setting final guidance, leading some away from the trade to speculate that an aggressive pricing approach scuppered the deal. But its hiccup didn’t deter other issuers from hitting the market. Morgan Davis reports.

Europe’s high grade corporate bond market had a distinctly Spanish flavour on Tuesday as Cellnex and Merlin Properties issued. Some analysts predict that the healthy earnings season might mean a 15% rise in bond issuance from the European market.