Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group

GAC-Sofinco Auto Finance is preparing to sell a Rmb4bn ($633m) deal in the Chinese asset-backed securities market on March 20, set to be the third foreign name origination in three weeks.

After a reasonable wait, investors are starting to see the more frequent investment grade corporate bond issuers return to the market. On Tuesday, French materials company Saint-Gobain and French telecoms operator Orange sold benchmark deals and UK media company WPP sold a dual-tranche issue.

Solusi Tunas Pratama is set to begin marketing a new $590m-equivalent financing in dollars and rupiah to retail lenders, said bankers close to the trade.

China Eastern Airlines Corp has raised ¥50bn ($468m) in Tokyo’s Pro-Bond market, breaking new ground in Japan with a standby letter of credit (SBLC) structure. Some bankers reckon the deal could be the first of many to come.

CVS Health printed the third-biggest bond deal of all time as it funded its $67.5bn acquisition of Aetna. Bankers hope that a revival in M&A activity will provide a shot in the arm for supply.

Investors this week showered orders on to the first bond issue from Teva Pharmaceuticals since a recent downgrade to high yield ratings. The hook? A 50bp-100bp premium over its old bonds in the secondary market.

Fresh doubt has been cast on whether the record-breaking $100bn loan package for US chip maker Broadcom will come to fruition, after a US national security committee took the unusual step of issuing a public warning against the acquisition that the funds will finance.

China's SAIC-GMAC Automotive Finance wants to raise Rmb3bn ($473.7m) from an asset-backed securitization on Monday.

Dongfeng Nissan Auto Finance will be returning to the Chinese asset-backed securities market on March 8 with a Rmb4.5bn ($710m) dual-tranche deal on the interbank market — the largest transaction by a foreign name originator so far this year.

India's Tata Steel, which mandated a group of 21 lenders in January for a new loan, has shrunk the size of the fundraising following a blowout bond issuance.

US chip maker Broadcom has received commitments from 12 lenders for a staggering $100bn funding package to finance its acquisition of technology company Qualcomm.

Qatar National Bank (QNB) has signed a $3.5bn loan with 21 international banks, with one of those also selling over $2.3bn of MTNs for the issuer, showing that banks’ jitters about supporting Qatari entities in the wake of the dispute between the sultanate and six other Arab states have partly been assuaged. Bianca Boorer and Virginia Furness report.