Barclays

As Barclays and Deutsche prepare to face shareholders and report earnings in the coming weeks, both AJs face fundamental questions about their investment banking strategies that could reshape the global industry, writes David Rothnie.

Wells Fargo launched its first sterling bond issue in over two years on Wednesday, showing the appeal of euro funding for US banks has faded since January.

Moroccan fertilizer company OCP on Wednesday priced its second ever international bond deal just a few basis points back of its extrapolated curve, investors said.

Kloeckner Pentaplast, the German plastic packaging company, on Wednesday began marketing €300m of unsecured notes with Kloeckner Pentaplast of America as issuer.

German media company Bertelsmann finished its roadshow on Wednesday for its debut hybrid capital bond issue, and could price the deal as early as Thursday, according to a banker at one of the leads.

Kloeckner Pentaplast, the German plastic film maker, has accelerated syndication on its €831m-equivalent loan in euros and dollars, designed to refinance debt and pay its shareholders a dividend.

Busy Bee, the UK nursery and early education provider for under-fives, has held a bank meeting this morning to market its £210m term loan ‘B’.

Changing investor attitudes towards contractual point of non-viability allowed Commonwealth Bank of Australia to draw a solid order book for a euro tier two deal on Wednesday.

Moroccan fertilizer company OCP has released initial price guidance of 4.875% area for a 10.5 year dollar benchmark, offering around a 12.5bp new issue premium for the deal.

Barclays has snapped up a hybrid structuring banker from Crédit Agricole.

RWE, the German electricity and gas company, issued €1.25bn of hybrid bonds on Tuesday, which are expected to partly replace its €1.75bn hybrid issued in 2010 and to be callable in September.

The FIG market could be set for a spate of issuance from the eurozone’s periphery in the coming weeks, with bankers tipping other financial institutions to follow Spanish pair CaixaBank and Ibercaja into the primary market.