Swiss Franc Bond: Holcim’s SFr425m dual-tranche sustainability-linked bond

The offering’s heft reflected the ambition of the underlying M&A transaction. The bonds were issued to fund a special cash payment to telecoms operator AT&T as part of a US$43bn spin-off transaction that merged WarnerMedia with Discovery, creating the world's second-largest media company. “This was the aircraft carrier; this was the trade everyone wanted to buy,” said Matt Gannon, a managing director at Barclays. Demand for the new bond ran high despite the difficult market environment in mid-March which saw new issues underperforming in the...

UK-based Haleon issued the seven-part unsecured offering in March to pay a dividend to owners GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, ahead of its spin-off as a standalone company. GSK owned 68% of the joint venture that owned Haleon, while Pfizer owned the remaining 32%. Under its new guise, Haleon will house popular consumer healthcare brands such as Sensodyne, Advil and Centrum. Bankers were quick to acknowledge how the heft and brand power of the two pharmaceutical giants helped ensure the success of the Yankee offering. “The beauty of it is that...

Although the tone over the summer had improved, with credit markets rallying, there was still a sense of fragility. Issuers had to be nimble and carefully choose the best execution windows. Medtronic did so and reaped the rewards, landing its deal at tighter concessions than the market average, despite the size. The US medical devices company is well-known to euro investors and had sold big multi-tranche deals before in the single currency. Still, it hadn’t been in the euro market for two years so took the sensible decision to hold a day of...

“Every year we reset to zero,” said Frederic Zorzi, global head of primary markets, explaining how BNP Paribas managed to notch up yet another stellar year. But 2022 proved different in that the bank achieved success beyond the single currency, becoming a particularly trusted partner in a critical SSAR sector and enduring a year that Zorzi called “the most challenging since 2008”. When to execute was “the biggest talking point we have had with issuers”, said Jamie Stirling, global head of SSA DCM. “We have been here before; we have the...

The €2.25bn dual-tranche transaction on March 21 was the first hybrid bond in the euro investment-grade corporate market following the onset of the war on February 24. While most supply in the immediate aftermath of the war came from safe sectors, such as SSA or covered bonds, the deal from one of the riskiest strata of the market highlighted VW’s status as a bellwether corporate issuer. The trade was followed by lower-rated hybrid issues the following day from Bayer and Telia. In order to navigate market risk, leads Barclays, MUFG, Natwest,...

The yen bond market in 2022 was roiled by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, US rate hikes and frantic efforts by the Bank of Japan to keep yields suppressed under its yield curve control policy, but Nomura led issuers confidently through this environment. Against such a challenging backdrop, global banks – the key issuers in the international yen bond market – were hesitant to visit Japan for funding in the first quarter, knowing that Japanese pension funds would be absent from the market due to their investment losses. With a late start to...

To get its privately placed deal done, the B2/B/B+ sovereign offered investors an innovative credit enhancement scheme. Egypt’s notes are 100% guaranteed by Japanese private bank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, with state-owned export credit agency Nippon Export and Investment Insurance providing insurance to SMBC for its payments under its guarantee obligation. The scheme was the first of its kind in the Samurai market. In the past, Japan Bank for International Cooperation has served as the credit enhancement provider for emerging market...

The key to being a market leader in any given sector is often not being wedded to a given outcome no matter the circumstances. Such is the case with Barclays and its prowess in the sterling arena. While it is undoubtedly at the forefront of arranging bond issuance in the currency, it has many others strings to its bow. It is the top-ranked non-domestic house in the US dollar market and the top-ranked UK house in euros, so is in no way inclined only to suggest sterling when it comes to currency options. Even so, as befits a UK-domiciled...

The deal, which had already been delayed by the Queen’s death, was progressing smoothly enough on September 28 when suddenly, in mid-execution, the Bank of England made the bombshell announcement that it would temporarily intervene in a Gilt market that was in meltdown. That the DMO still managed to get the deal done despite a huge move in market prices following the Bank’s statement without a single investor dropping from the book reaffirmed its reputation, if not necessarily the UK government’s. Given how fraught the market was in the days...

The North American investment-grade corporate bond market featured a number of franchise-defining deals in 2022, including inaugural offerings from Facebook owner Meta Platforms and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices. But overall volumes in the region plummeted, and to get many otherwise mundane transactions done to executives’ high standards, bankers were forced to sweat the details like never before. One bank managed these tough circumstances with particular aplomb. While North American high-grade corporate bond volumes fell 25% to US$483bn...