Barclays

Spain has mandated for its first deal of the year, but the sovereign has taken the rare step of bringing a syndication in the same week as it is holding auctions.

Both KfW and the Council of Europe hit the books in sterling-denominated deals that raised £300m apiece.

A bevvy of public sector borrowers are lining up euro deals for Tuesday and beyond — but some are opting to hold back price thoughts amid a cluttered and volatile backdrop.

Shire has signed an $18bn loan with two underwriters to fund the cash component of its $32bn acquisition of Baxalta, a pharmaceuticals company specialising in rare diseases. Syndication of the loan will begin swiftly, according to bankers familiar with the transaction.

BBVA, BFCM and BPCE met with strong investor demand for euro senior unsecured deals on Monday, as peripheral and longer dated debt proved no deterrent to buyers.

Intesa Sanpaolo is set to print the first additional tier one transaction of 2016 after opening the dollar tier two market for European banks last week, while ABN Amro opened the euro bank capital market on Monday.

Supranational and agency borrowers have long anticipated a wave of demand from American investors as US government sponsored enterprise issuance dwindles. But this week there were concrete signs that the dollar bond market has shaken off the problems that prevented the big switch. Craig McGlashan reports.

Lloyds issued the first sterling covered bond of the year and was quickly followed by two overseas issuers who priced deals at successively wider levels.

Public sector borrowers enjoyed a storming sterling market this week and, with many of the supporting factors still in place, SSA bankers are confident that more deals will follow.

Borrowers who issued covered bonds this week that are eligible for the European Central Bank’s purchase programme (CBPP3) did not receive such a strong reception as those whose bonds were not eligible.

European high yield specialists hope the continent's market can repeat in 2016 its sharp outperformance compared with the US market last year — but history suggests that the two markets tend not to diverge for long.

Eleven covered bonds were priced in the first week of 2016 despite the onset of European holidays and US non-farm payroll data.