US primary market issuances rose over 2.4x to $27.5bn vs. $11.4bn in the week prior. All of last week’s new deals were from investment grade (IG) corporates with no deals from high yield (HY) corporates. In comparison, the week prior to last saw $9.1bn of IG deals and $2.3bn of HY issuances. Last week’s deals were led by big banks such as JPMorgan’s $4.6bn four-trancher, Citigroup’s $3bn dual-trancher and Morgan Stanley’s $2.5bn dual-trancher, besides Amgen’s $4bn four-part deal. In North America, there were a total of 49 upgrades and 24 downgrades combined across the three major rating agencies last week. LatAm saw $3.6bn vs. $2.5bn in issuances in the week prior led by Dominican Republic’s $3.56bn two-part deal besides other minor deals. In South America, there were 2 upgrades and 2 downgrades across the major rating agencies. EU Corporate G3 issuances were slightly higher at $27.1bn vs. $23.5bn in the week prior, led by BPCE SFH’s €1.75bn issuance, ING Di-Bia’s €1.5bn deal and Deutsche Bank’s €1.25bn green bond issuance. Across the European region, there were 21 upgrades and 27 downgrades across the three major rating agencies. GCC G3 issuance were at a mere $105mn vs. $1.5bn in the week before with small deals from banks in the region.. Across the Middle East/Africa region, there were no upgrades nor downgrades across the three major rating agencies. APAC ex-Japan G3 issuances stood at $8.3bn vs. $4.9bn led by CBA’s and Beijing State-Owned Capital Management’s €1.25bn and €1bn deals, followed by KDB’s $1.5bn two-tranche deal, BOC HK’s $1bn dual-trancher and Westpac’s €750mn issuance. In the APAC region, there were 9 upgrades and 18 downgrades combined across the three major rating agencies last week.
