Banks

The US Federal Home Loan Banks system has become the latest borrower to print bonds linked to Sofr, the planned replacement benchmark for dollar Libor.

Building materials company Knauf has signed a €4bn-equivalent underwritten debt package to go towards its purchase of US peer USG Corp, as lenders continue to reap the rewards of Germany’s booming M&A market.

The Netherland’s AVR has signed a €100m sustainable credit facility, with the waste to energy company pushing out maturities to up to seven years.

UniCredit’s CFO Mirko Bianchi has been on the road to meet North American investors after the bank released its third quarter results. From the end of the month, it expects to be prepared to issue its second ever senior non-preferred bond.

Private equity firm Antin Infrastructure Partners has signed €673m of debt facilities to back its acquisition of French energy infrastructure and services company Idex.

HSBC Canada has mandated joint leads for its first covered bond and held investor meetings on Tuesday. The moves comes after a succession of successful dollar benchmarks from European and Canadian borrowers.

Nigeria is back in capital markets, undeterred by a volatile backdrop that has kept other borrowers from accessing the market.

Gazprom on Tuesday sold the first public international bond from Russia since a punitive round of US sanctions was put on the country in April.

Any hopes for a resurgence in risk appetite among bank debt investors are starting to look far fetched in the closing stages of 2018.

The first dollar additional tier one (AT1) deal from a Chinese city commercial bank in almost a year struggled to find its feet in the secondary market on Wednesday.

The Export-Import Bank of Thailand set a benchmark for issuers from the country with its debut $300m outing on Tuesday, finding strong backing both in the primary and secondary markets.

Cement maker Semen Indonesia has mandated five banks for a $1.282bn bridge loan to support its acquisition of the local unit of Swiss firm LafargeHolcim.