US primary markets saw a slight increase in issuances to $27.1bn vs. $24.5bn in the prior week. While IG issuances dropped to $15.3bn vs. $16.7bn in the prior week, HY issuances rose almost 2x to $11.6bn vs. $6bn in the wee before. The largest deals in IG space were led by Continental Resources’ $1.6bn dual-trancher and Aptiv’s $1.5bn deal. In the HY space, DISH DBS’s $5.25bn two-trancher led the table followed by Ford Motor’s $2.5bn issuance, the largest green bond issuance by a US company. In North America, there were a total of 37 upgrades and 16 downgrades combined across the three major rating agencies last week. LatAm saw $500mn vs. $388mn in issuances in the week prior with Telefonica Moviles’ Chile being the sole issuer. In South America, there was 1 upgrade and 3 downgrades combined across the major rating agencies. EU Corporate G3 issuances saw a rise to $26.2bn vs. $16.8bn in the week prior with Deutsche Bank’s $1.8bn leading the table followed by BPER Banca, KfW, ING, SocGen and NatWest each raising $1bn to lead the table. Across the European region, there were 14 upgrades and 5 downgrades across the three major rating agencies. The GCC G3 saw $5.3bn in issuances vs. no issuances in the prior week led by Saudi Arabia’s $3.25bn and Bahrain’s $2bn dual-tranchers. Across the Middle East/Africa region, there was 1 upgrade and no downgrades across the three major rating agencies. APAC ex-Japan G3 issuances saw a sharp rise to $14.7bn vs. $3.2bn and $7.1bn in the weeks before. The largest deals were led by Westpac’s $5.5bn five-part issuance and China’s €3.5bn three-trancher. The week also saw a relief rally across Chinese property bonds on the news that regulators may loosen rules for developers to issue debt in the domestic interbank market. In the Asia ex-Japan region, there were 3 upgrades and 4 downgrades combined across the three major rating agencies last week.
