The Week That Was (28 Mar – 03 Apr)

US primary market issuances fell to $25bn vs. $32bn in the week prior. Investment grade (IG) corporates once again took the chunk of issuances, with $20bn of deals while high yield (HY) issuance stood at $3bn. The largest IG deals were led by Corebridge Financial’s $6bn five-trancher and HP’s $2bn dual-trancher. In the HY space, Novolex raised $1.61bn via a two-tranche, followed by CDI’s $1.2bn issuance. In North America, there were a total of 20 upgrades and 25 downgrades combined across the three major rating agencies last week. LatAm saw $1bn in issuances last week with America Movil being the sole issuer as compared to nil in the prior week. In South America, there was 4 upgrades and 1 downgrade across the major rating agencies. EU Corporate G3 issuances stood at $31.4bn vs. $47bn in the week prior, led by the Santander UK’s €1.75bn deal and BNP Paribas’ €1.5bn issuance. Across the European region, there were 19 upgrades and 137 downgrades across the three major rating agencies, with the majority of the latter coming from Russian corporates. The GCC G3 region saw $1.3bn vs. $3bn in issuances in the week, led by Sharjah’s $750mn sukuk and FAB’s €500mn deal. Across the Middle East/Africa region, there were 2 upgrades and 2 downgrades across the three major rating agencies. APAC ex-Japan G3 issuances stood at $7.9bn vs. $8.6bn in the week before. This was led by UOB’s $2.1bn three-trancher, Westpac’s €1bn deal and Greenko’s $750mn deals. In the APAC region, there were 2 upgrades and 17 downgrades combined across the three major rating agencies last week.