Wells Fargo Securities

HSBC led a surge in dollar bond supply as high-grade banks sprang back into issuance mode after a two-week layoff.

Berry Global, the US plastic packaging maker, will raise bonds to finance its purchase of UK plastics maker RPC Group, it said on Wednesday. The debt raising will feature $3bn of senior secured notes in two tranches. This marks the end of leveraged finance bankers' hopes that the auction of RPC would deliver substantial new money supply to the European market.

Switzerland’s Transocean has amended its bank revolving credit facility to increase the size to $1.36bn, with the fallen angel offshore contract drilling services provider keeping an additional $140m in the wings on the undrawn facility.

US bond bankers are looking forward to a bumper May, with a slew of big ticket M&A financings set to hit the dollar market within days. Bristol-Myers Squibb announced a roadshow on Thursday for a deal that is expected to be around $21bn, to help fund its acquisition of Celgene.

The cost of funding in euros or sterling has swung back into favour for dollar-focused financial institutions in recent months, heralding the return of several North American banks to the market, including Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo attracted plenty of interest in a new five year senior bond in euros on Wednesday and was able to squeeze all of the new issue premium out of the transaction, its first in euros for two years.

On Friday, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo posted falls in investment banking revenue for last quarter. But debt underwriting business was a bright spot for both banks.

The financial institutions bond market was confined to a handful of small trades this week, as Wall Street self-funders prepared to pull the trigger on multi-billion trades after reporting season.

Sentiment in the dollar corporate bond market remained upbeat this week, even after jumbo deals from Broadcom and Saudi Aramco traded softly.

Bank of China sold another blockbuster Belt and Road transaction on Wednesday, raising $3.8bn across eight tranches of notes in five currencies across five bank branches, It was the largest transaction sold under the BRI label.

French construction company Vinci took advantage of a lull in supply and favourable financing conditions to make its long-awaited dollar market debut.

Four new corporate bonds hit the market on Wednesday. In a change from recent days, all the deals were of moderate size and single tranched. Terna, the Italian grid operator, and Banque PSA France were typical in launching €500m no-grow deals. Book sizes diverged strongly, with those two issuers getting heavy oversubscription, while Aroundtown and Voestalpine had much less.