Israel

Several big name investors this week called the start of a bond bear market after a back-up in 10 year US Treasury yields but there was little sign of reticence from the emerging markets buy-side, with three sovereigns pulling in jumbo order books.

Investors piled in excess of $12.5bn orders into a dual tranche dollar trade for Israel on Wednesday, the largest level of oversubscription the sovereign has ever experienced.

The State of Israel opened books on Wednesday for a dual tranche dollar note that will extend its curve by an extra five years.

Israel has returned to dollars for its first trade of 2018, picking leads for a dual tranche 10 and/or 30 year bond.

Israel Electric Corp will head out on a US roadshow next week, with the company meeting fixed income investors two months after worker strikes saw operating cash flow at the firm dip into negative territory.

The non-US women's health unit of Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is mulling the option of issuing its first term loans in euros to fund its buyout by private equity firm CVC.

Israeli pharma company Teva’s bonds plunged further on Monday after “one acquisition too far” saw ratings downgrades combined with concerns that the company will breach its debt covenants, prompting investors to dump holdings.

Shares in Taptica International, the London-listed Israeli digital marketing solutions company, closed 5.4% lower on Wednesday after three investors sold a 16.9% stake for £39.5m, through an accelerated bookbuild on Tuesday night.

Israeli energy company Delek Group has mandated two banks to lead the syndication of a $1.75bn loan which will back its drilling operations in the recently discovered Leviathan natural gas basin in the Mediterranean.

Israel reopened the CEEMEA bond market in style on Wednesday, placing a rare 20 year euro bond, part of a €2.25bn dual tranche offering, which enabled the issuer to tap into new investors.

Israel burst onto screens on Wednesday to open CEEMEA issuance for 2017. A popular name with investors, the 20bp premium offered at initial price thoughts seemed to go down well with the €6.5bn of orders submitted before lunch.

Latin American issuers are leading the charge to primary markets this year so far in emerging market bonds but Wednesday saw the first CEEMEA issuer to open books as Israel tried a dual tranche 10 and 20 year trade.