Barclays

China Development Bank’s financing arm CDB Leasing is set to kick off a series of meetings with investors starting this week in Asia and Europe for a senior unsecured dollar bond issue.

Axis Bank this week made a successful return to the bond market after more than two years away. While the borrower was not in need of funds it took advantage of tightening spreads to price through its rivals' curves, although US participation in the 144A trade was limited.

British Sky Broadcasting, the UK pay TV company, priced €850m and £750m of listed bonds on Monday over three maturities to fund its acquisition of Sky Deutschland. The deal was no blowout — one tranche was priced at the level of initial price thoughts, the others only 5bp tighter — but with an additional €400m from a private placement on the same day, Sky says it has now completed the financing for its acquisitions.

Publicis Groupe's $3.5bn loan for its acquisition of Sapient, the marketing and consulting company, is near closing, according to a banker working on the deal. A syndicate of relationship banks has been invited.

Health Care Reit, the Ohio-based real estate investment trust, issued a £500m 20 year bond on Friday October 14. It is the longest sterling bond to be issued by a company other than a housing association since the Wellcome Trust's 45 year deal in May.

Bankers working on Axis Bank’s new dollar bond are expecting a strong response from investors as the issuer makes its first appearance in two years. A lack of Indian bank supply combined with positive sentiment towards the country is likely to work in its favour.

Regulators have agreed a first round of fines over rigging the G10 FX markets, but with big beasts such as the US Department of Justice conspicuous by their absence from the settlement, there could be plenty more to come.

Virgin Money, the UK challenger bank backed by Richard Branson and Wilbur Ross, succeeded in pricing its £312m IPO on Wednesday, though at the bottom of the price range. The sale brought the former Northern Rock back to the stockmarket, six and a half years after it was nationalised after suffering a deposit run in 2007.

German IT company SAP today priced €2.75bn of the €4bn bonds it said it would issue to fund its acquisition of US expenses software firm Concur. The deal generated huge demand, with order books across the three tranches bulging to €11bn.

Barclays and MSCI have launched a green bond index family, which will run alongside their existing environmental, social and government fixed income indices.

The European Financial Stability Facility was able to price its tightest ever 10 year benchmark this week, while sovereign, supranational and agency officials cast doubt on whether European Central Bank covered bond buying would have much knock-on effect on SSA bond spreads when supply surges in January.

The November deluge of dollar supply continued as companies from across the high-grade spectrum printed a total of $25bn in three days of issuance this week, led by nervous energy and resources companies.