13 October 2003 22:11
New Issues: HBOS plans €2bn benchmark
There are several large deals in the pipeline this week, including at least ?2bn in UK covered bonds from HBOS and a
benchmark issue from Russia's largest bank.
Book-building began on Monday for the second UK covered bond benchmark from HBOS, the largest British mortgage
lender. Lead managers said the issue would be of at least ?2bn, with a maturity of 10 years.
The deal is being led by Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and WestLB, with co-lead managers ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, CDC,
Deutsche Bank, DrKW, DZ Bank, LBBW, and SG CIB.
Sberbank, which has about 65 per cent of the Russian retail deposit market, received a Baa3 investment-grade credit
rating from Moody's Investors Service following last week's sovereign upgrade for Russia.
This will make it the first Russia-based issuer to sell an investment-grade bond when it launches its benchmark
dollar deal this week.
The three-year floating-rate note issue is being led by UBS, with pricing expected on Tuesday or Thursday.
Telecom Italia's sale of as much as $4bn in dollar bonds is expected this week.
China is expected to start marketing about $1.5bn of bonds to overseas investors this week, with pricing as early as
next week. The sale will probably comprise $1bn of 10-year dollar bonds and the equivalent of $500m of seven-year euro
debt. BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and UBS will manage the euro sale; Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch the
dollar offering.
Elsewhere, Heineken, the world's fourth largest brewer, began marketing a benchmark euro denominated bond to
help finance the takeover of Austria's BBAG. Joint leads are Barclays Capital, Citigroup, CSFB and JP Morgan.
French broadcaster TF1 will start presentations on Thursday for a benchmark seven-year euro bond led by BNP Paribas
and Natexis.
[UKIR [UK & Ireland Intelligence Wire]] |
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