Banks

Air France KLM has mandated banks for a five year euro bond. The appearance of an unrated issuer so early in the year is being seen as a sign of the market’s strength.

The pipeline is starting to fill in the public sector bond market with the European Investment Bank and Kommunalbanken set to bring dollar deals and KfW preparing its first euro benchmark of the year. More deals — including the first sovereign syndication of the year— are set to follow this week.

KfW broke new ground in the sterling bond market on Monday by bringing its largest ever benchmark in the currency. Kommunalbanken is looking to latch on to the red hot market too after picking banks to lead a new December 2024 trade.

Atlantica Yield, formerly the UK-based energy yieldco Abengoa Yield, has launched a debut US private placement, which is the first US PP offering in 2020 in Europe.

JP Morgan was the top bookrunner for investment-grade syndicated loans globally in 2019 again, though BNP Paribas was the bank to beat in Europe.

German grocer Edeka Rhein-Ruhr has signed up to €262.8m of debt from commercial and state banks as it looks to build infrastructure after increasing revenues by 150%.

Norwegian oil exploration and production company Aker BP is positioning itself as an investment grade issuer with a new dual tranche dollar mandate, with a call targeting bond buyers with IG mandates, and an unsecured issue structure. The company received its second IG rating last November.

Angolan national oil company Sonangol will soon launch syndication for a loan that could be as large as $1bn, according to bankers, though most expect the African pipeline in the early year to remain muted.

The State of Israel was first out of the blocks for emerging markets bonds on Monday, as it announced a dual tranche dollar offering despite market participants' continued caution after the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani.

Leeds Building Society opened books on Monday for its second Sonia-linked covered bond. The trade benefited from an ‘unparallelled’ level of demand, reaching almost four times its £600m size.

Rabobank opened books on its first ever non-preferred senior deal in sterling on Monday, as it sought to take advantage of a general lack of a supply in the currency over the course of the last couple of months.

LBBW has picked banks to arrange the sale of a new euro covered bond as activity in the market gets off to a slower start than usual following the new year break.