Wells Fargo Securities

Non-European names hit the euro market this week with a trio of US companies and Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) raising debt. But syndicate bankers say rising US rates are still way off the sweet spot that would make the euro market irresistible for all Reverse Yankee issuers.

Europe’s high grade bond investors showed they are still willing to swallow ultra-thin spreads this week, when Dutch leasing company LeasePlan priced a green bond well inside fair value and Deutsche Boerse won ample demand for a thinly priced €1bn deal.

WP Carey, the US REIT, has mandated for a euro bond through its Dutch subsidiary, as Europe’s syndicate bankers say that there are signs in the rates market that Reverse Yankees could become a popular choice again.

World Bank has been aggressively pushing out its curve linked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate: the new risk free rate in dollars. Other supranationals are eager to follow the Bretton Woods institution into longer dated floating rate paper.

World Bank sold the longest ever Sofr-linked floating rate note from a public sector borrower on Thursday with a $600m 10 year trade.

Liberty Mutual gave US institutional investors their first chance to pick up subordinated paper with a fixed-for-life coupon in the 144A market this week. Bankers say the issuer may have found a new pool of demand for the product, which has traditionally been reserved for retail channels.

Casino operator Genting New York priced a $525m bond on Wednesday.

Four US global banking titans roared out of earnings blackout to raise more than $20bn of debt this week, issuing deals either side of president Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Companies in the same sector often copy each other, but this year's string of bond issues by aircraft lessors has been exceptional, and is prompted by the sector's credit rehabilitation. Air Lease Corp took the recovery past a new milestone this week.

Royal Bank of Canada priced its first bond issue of the year as Yankee borrowers made the most of good funding conditions in the run-up to US bank earnings season.

Gracell Biotechnologies has raised $209m from its Nasdaq IPO after increasing the size of the float and pricing the deal above the initial marketed range.

Chinese clinical-stage company Gracell Biotechnologies has kicked off the roadshow for its Nasdaq listing, eyeing up to $158.9m in proceeds.