Wells Fargo Securities

Records tumbled in the US bond market this week, as Bank of America and Toronto Dominion set new pricing records.

Wall Street heavyweights piled into the dollar market with a string of tightly-priced preferred share deals, after reporting full-year earnings this week amid FIG supply of $25bn in just four days.

The latest battle in the campaign to weaken corporate governance standards in the US is being fought over rule changes that would make it harder for investors to propose motions at shareholder meetings. The ‘proxy advisers’ so central to US governance also face new restrictions.

Robert "Bob" Fernandez, a veteran of EM debt capital markets, has joined Saudi Aramco's treasury.

Norwegian oil exploration and production company Aker BP is positioning itself as an investment grade issuer with a new dual tranche dollar mandate, with a call targeting bond buyers with IG mandates, and an unsecured issue structure. The company received its second IG rating last November.

Investors gobbled up a high yield bond offering by US plastic packaging company Berry on Thursday, encouraging the company to increase the size twice, eventually reaching over €1bn. Berry is the only speculative grade company to issue a major bond this week in Europe, as most issuers stayed away from a market anxious about the UK general election.

Investec has entered the loan market for the third time this year, taking a $450m two year term loan from a range of international lenders.

Bank issuers led a flurry of dollar bond deals this week, as they dashed to wrap up funding before year end and ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s final meeting of 2019.

Fidelity National Information Services, the US financial software company, returned to the euro and sterling bond markets with a second multi-tranche deal in six months to raise €2.6bn-equivalent of debt on Thursday, though it printed fewer tranches than the market was expecting.

Goldman Sachs set the lowest coupon of 2019 on a new preferred deal in the institutional bond market this week, while BNP Paribas buried the memory of its troubled dollar trade in January with a storming come-back.

AbbVie enjoyed the undivided attention of US bond investors on Tuesday when it hit the market with a $30bn 10 tranche deal that, remarkably for such a big deal, priced with a negative new issue concession.

National Express printed a £250m nine year bond at what looked like a zero concession to its curve on Wednesday, overcoming some sharp moves in the Gilt market.