Banks

Commerzbank and LBBW are looking to become one of the first issuers in the euro market in 2019, having both announced new mandates for covered bonds on Friday.

The European Commission said on Thursday that it had informed four banks that have, in its view, breached European Union antitrust rules in trading SSA bonds in the secondary market that it is investigating them.

Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab has finished its Skr6bn (€581m) rights issue with enough demand to almost cover the deal twice over.

Natixis’s share price plunged on Wednesday after the bank reported a €260m hedging loss in its Asian equity derivatives business, an event which some analysts say other firms could suffer in 2019.

Austria’s Verbund has joined the ESG-linked revolving credit facility fray, with the electricity company signing what leads say is the first such deal in the country.

GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer have agreed to combine their consumer health businesses to create a market leading joint venture with sales of around £9.8bn. The companies expect to divest assets to cover the cash cost of the integration.

An appetite for risk is returning to Latin America's equity markets heading into 2019 as worries over the China-US trade war and rates hikes in the latter country ease, according to a Lat Am fund manager survey from Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research.

Russian Copper Co (RCC) has closed a $250m five year credit facility, marking the second refinancing that RCC has secured this year. The tight margin sparked a sliver of optimism in the market.

MUFG went to the buy-side to hire a new head of institutional investor sales for the US.

Banks with large exposures in Romania took a beating in the financial markets on Wednesday, after the country’s government unveiled plans to introduce a new tax on banking assets.

Danish logistics company Maersk opted to please all of its investors who tendered bonds as part of the company’s recent liability management exercise when it announced on Tuesday that it had increased the total amount it would buy back.

Malaysia's securities regulator has upheld its decision to penalise those involved in the listing scandal of Lotte Chemical Titan after dismissing the review applications.