Bank of America

Rating: Aaa/AAA

This week’s steady run of one equity block trade a night in the European market continued on Thursday with the biggest deal so far, as Bpifrance, the French state investment fund, launched a €500m sale of more than half its holding in Eiffage, the construction and concessions group.

The Boston Retirement System (BRS) is suing five banks and four traders for allegedly conspiring to manipulate bid-ask spreads on SSA debt traded in the secondary market, increasing their profit at the expense of their clients.

The European Central Bank’s corporate sector purchase programme will distort CEE corporate bond prices, said bankers this week. And while issuers have so far been slow to react in bringing new deals to market, two CEE corporates printed successful euro denominated bonds this week.

Long dated dollar issuance could be set for a return in the coming weeks, after minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s rate meeting in April — released on Wednesday night — showed a more hawkish sentiment than the market was expecting.

The prospect of the UK voting to leave the European Union has become the foremost focus of fund managers and volatility traders, even as the latest poll on Brexit gave the ‘Remain’ campaign an 18 point lead over ‘Leave’ — prompting the pound to rally to its highest point against the dollar since May 3.

Indian pharmaceutical firm Laurus Labs is planning a Rp10bn ($148.7m) IPO this year and has lined up three banks to lead it, according to a source close to the deal.

Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) set a new benchmark this week with what bankers say is the first triple tranche deal out of South Korea. The policy bank managed to bring high quality US investors into its three year notes, while also sealing tight pricing on the longer-dated portion.

Hotel Lotte Co is aiming to raise as much as W5.7tr ($4.8bn) from its South Korean IPO and is due to start pre-marketing on Friday.

Dubai-headquartered Emirates NBD is paying 150bp all-in pricing for its latest loan, tightening from the cost of the previous financing, according to a banker close to the deal.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is set to sell its first dollar-denominated green bond on Thursday that comes with a standby letter of credit from Bank of China’s London branch. The offering marks the third dollar green debt to be sold by a Chinese issuer.

Shares in Van Lanschot, the Dutch investment bank that is transforming itself into a pure wealth manager, have traded fairly stably as its ‘re-IPO’ has been announced and got under way this week.