US primary market issuances picked-up to $43bn vs. $17.2bn in the week prior. Most of last week’s new deals were from investment grade (IG) corporates with $41.3bn in issuances and $1.5bn from high yield (HY) corporates. Last week’s deals were led by HCA’s $6bn five-trancher, S&P’s $5.5bn five-trancher American Express’ $4bn three-trancher, Charles Schwab’s $3bn three-trancher. In the HY space, BellRing Brands’ $840mn and Energizer Holdings’ $300mn deals led the tables. In North America, there were a total of 49 upgrades and 13 downgrades combined across the three major rating agencies last week. LatAm saw $2bn vs. $3.6bn in issuances in the week prior led by Chile’s $2bn SLB deal being the sole issuance. In South America, there were 3 upgrades and 2 downgrades each across the major rating agencies. EU Corporate G3 issuances dropped to $12.8bn vs. $23.2bn in the week prior, led by Roche Holdings’ $5bn five-trancher, HSBC’s $2.25bn dual-trancher. Across the European region, there were 15 upgrades and 191 downgrades across the three major rating agencies with the chunk of downgrades coming across Ukranian and Russian corporates. The GCC G3 region saw no issuances vs. $750mn in the week before. Across the Middle East/Africa region, there were no upgrades and 1 downgrade across the three major rating agencies. APAC ex-Japan G3 issuances stood at $5.4bn vs. $6.4bn led by Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) $4.5bn five-trancher followed by Bank of China’s $400mn deal and AVIC International’s $200mn deals. In the APAC region, there were 4 upgrades and 10 downgrades combined across the three major rating agencies last week.
