Barclays

Royal Dutch Shell, like most oil companies a dollar-based issuer, had already blessed the euro market with a €2bn issue this year, in March.

Heathrow has signed a £2.15bn refinancing of its revolving credit and liquidity facilities with a syndicate of 22 banks. The loan comprises a £1.4bn revolving credit facility and a £750m standby liquidity facility.

Novartis returned to the euro bond market on Friday October 31 after five years to issue seven and 12 year notes. A solid market allowed the total size to grow from an expected €1bn to €1.2bn.

The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee released its updated guidance on leverage ratio requirements on Friday afternoon. The new ratios look positive for the UK's largest lenders, being considerably less demanding than the worst case scenarios and with all but one of the country's global banks already meeting their requirements.

Intu Properties, the UK real estate investment trust, signed a £600m revolving credit facility on Friday. The five year loan carries a two year extension option.

The mild market reaction to Dilma Rousseff’s Brazilian presidential election victory last Sunday suggested the incumbent’s triumph was already priced in, said bond investors. However, market participants warned of volatility in the coming months until the direction of the government’s economic policy becomes clearer.

Rating: Ba1/A-/BBB+

Investors have successfully pushed pricing wider on three leveraged loan deals that are closing this week, with RAC, a well liked credit, the latest to flex for investors.

Czech Raiffeisenbank priced the first publicly syndicated euro benchmark covered bond from the country on Wednesday. At the same time, Toronto Dominion Bank mandated leads for its first Australian dollar covered bond.

Slovenia this week became the latest sovereign to be tempted into pre-funding by the low yields on offer, following deals from Lithuania and Romania last week. The issuer priced a long seven year bond that marks the lowest coupon on any of its outstanding medium to long term euro benchmarks.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) priced its third euro benchmark of the year, and its fourth covered bond benchmark across all currencies, on Tuesday. The deal took advantage of space created by robust Eurosystem central bank demand at the short end. And responding to reverse enquiry, the issuer also priced a £250m three year floater.

For the first time the European Central Bank waded into the primary market for covered bonds for its third purchase programme (CBPP3) this week, as eurozone issuers from the currency bloc’s core and periphery returned after a long hiatus. The central bank’s buying may not be so good for core issuers but the evidence so far suggests peripheral names who have been locked out are about to bask in its largesse.