Banks

Talos Capital has sold a €191.4m stake in Aena SME, the Spanish airport operator, capping off the biggest week for equity block trades in Europe this year.

Centerbridge Partners has sold a €119.2m chunk of its stake in Banca Farmafactoring, the Italian factoring company that specialises in payments owed by public institutions to the healthcare sector, after the stock has rebounded since October.

Tim Sloan, CEO and president of Wells Fargo, has announced his retirement, after several years of regulatory and legal pressure on the bank as a result of mis-selling revelations. Sloan was a Wells veteran; the US bank will now not choose one its own staff as his permanent replacement.

Country Garden Holdings Co raised $1.5bn in a dual tranche trade on Thursday. The longer dated tranche, a seven year tenor, is the longest dated bond from a high yield property borrower this year.

Bank of Baroda returned to the market on Thursday to sell its first dollar deal in nearly five years. The bank, acting through its London Branch, raised $800m in a sale that came just days before its expected merger with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank.

Logistics provider ESR Cayman raised $250m from the bond market this week, ahead of a planned IPO in Hong Kong later this year.

Indian real estate major DLF bagged Rp31.7bn ($458.7m) this week after wrapping up its qualified institutional placement (QIP), with investors winning a near 5% discount to the floor price.

Sportswear firm Xtep International Holdings has raised HK$1.37bn ($175m) after increasing the size of a top-up placement on the back of strong new and existing shareholder demand.

Chinese provincial government-owned Guangzhou Industrial Investment Fund Management Co (Sfund) saw a 14 times covered order book for its return to dollar bonds, while Yunnan Metropolitan Construction Investment Group Co was able to hit its $800m size target.

Sino Biopharmaceutical has increased its refinancing loan to $1bn after receiving a strong response during syndication.

JPM securitization banker leaves — Goldman Brexiter quits for politics — Balax enrols in fintech course

RCI Banque followed Volkswagen Financial Services’ triple tranche bond issue on Monday with its own two-part issue on Wednesday. Both car finance banks, as very regular issuers, are unlikely to command the absolute tightest pricing relative to their secondary curves, but demand has also cooled somewhat this week, compared with the avid tone of recent weeks. Nevertheless, pricing tightened a long way.