Bank of America

Germany's HeidelbergCement has slashed the margin it pays for syndicated loans, signing a new €3bn five year refinancing loan with an out of the box margin of 95bp, a 30bp reduction on the debt it is repaying.

Gazprombank opened books on a 5.5 year dollar bond on Tuesday morning, which debt bankers away from the deal said had opened with a generous starting spread.

Solidium, a Finnish state investment fund, raised €800m through a combined ABB and exchangeable bond on Tuesday, allowing it to monetise some of its holding in Sampo and reviving the structure after a run of similar deals in early 2012.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank closed the first FIG deal from the Middle East this week, pricing a $750m bond flat to its secondary curve. Bankers off and even on the deal had doubted how much international interest there would be given how tight Middle East spreads are relative to the rest of the CEEMEA market. But the final order book left no doubt about demand for a region which, in a world of EM uncertainty, has stability and credit strength firmly on its side.

Theme park operator Dalian Haichang Group started premarketing its $300m Hong Kong IPO on February 24, according to a banker close to the trade.

Pohjola Bank was set to print a familiar Scandinavian seven year in senior unsecured on Monday, but made its trade stand out with the addition of a much rarer floating rate note.

The list of Chinese firms eyeing up an US IPO has just gotten longer thanks to mobile game developer Chukong Tech, which is planning to raise $150m in the second half of the year, according to a banker close to the deal.

China Properties Group’s dollar bond had still not materialised by Thursday afternoon, despite announcing price guidance on Wednesday morning. The borrower’s fundraising plans have faced a number of setbacks, as earlier this week it had told investors it was issuing an offshore renminbi bond.

Corporate bond issuance is set to get busier again in Europe next week, bankers say, with a drive-by deal also possible on Friday.

Sberbank printed $1bn of subordinated debt on Tuesday at a price that three syndicate managers away from the deal said was very aggressive. After being priced at par, the note was trading at 99.75-100 on Wednesday morning, initially indicating that the leads were right to push it, but it had sunk as low as 98.875 on Thursday afternoon, fuelling thoughts that pricing was too tight for the deal size.

Demand for dollar deals from a pair of German issuers surpassed expectations this week, as Erste Abwicklungsanstalt followed a heavily oversubscribed print from KfW with its debut benchmark in the currency — and had to increase the size in the face of strong demand.

More investors are deciding the risk of default is not worth the astonishing yields available on Venezuelan debt as bond prices hit new lows amid anti-government protests in the South American nation.