Banks

Guarantor: Swedish local government members

The State of North Rhine Westphalia took centre stage in a quiet euro public sector market this week with a syndicated increase of its century bond.

Barclays is under pressure from activist investor Edward Bramson to slim down its investment bank. But among top European IBs, it made the second highest amount of revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2018, according to new research. The results were less promising for Deutsche Bank, however.

High yield bond investors in Europe are getting squeezed from both sides, as formerly regular visitors to the market hit investment grade status, and new acquisition financings hit the loan market rather than bonds. Schaeffler’s blow-out debut in the investment grade bond market on Tuesday took out €1.5bn equivalent of former HY product.

TD Securities has hired a senior corporate bond syndicator in New York following the departure of another banker who left to rejoin his old firm, Deutsche Bank.

A surge of additional tier one issuance this week shone a light on how activity in the market is going to shape up in the coming months and years — refinancing is now the main game in town.

Deutsche Bank has added two senior bankers to its Americas debt syndicate desk in New York as it looks to build on a strong start to the year in investment grade DCM.

Swiss franc investors leapt headlong into the Brexit turbulence on Thursday morning, giving a solid reception to the first Swissie deal of the year from a UK corporate borrower.

Middle-Eastern payments company Network International is getting plenty of traction in pre-marketing for its IPO on the London Stock Exchange and has garnered interest from investors interested in anchoring the transaction, according to sources close to the IPO.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten was the only name out in dollars this week for a small tap, as the US Federal Reserve sent rates sharply down after a more dovish than expected meeting on Wednesday.

Kommuninvest built out its Swedish krona green curve benchmark this week with its longest dated bond in the format. There is, however, an expectation that this Skr3.5bn ($382.3m) five year green bond could be the curve’s furthest extent.

The Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank talks have given Europe’s FIG bankers an unexpected source of cheer, writes David Rothnie.