BNP Paribas

French toll road operator APRR had been quiet in 2018 by its own standards, but it sold its first corporate bond deal of the year on Wednesday with a €500m long 11 year trade. It paid a low new issue premium for the deal, but lost a number of orders along the way.

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.

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

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

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.

Bank of China returned to the bond market with a multi-tranche, multi-currency bond this week, making clear that its funding needs and its role as a flag-bearer of Chinese policy overseas are inextricably linked. Morgan Davis reports.

Duke Energy Corp became the latest US utility to issue green bonds last week, when it priced a $1bn dual tranche offering.

Mizuho has put in place a replacement for Farris Mellor, director of loan sales, EMEA syndications, who left the bank in August. The hire squashes fears that the bank may have been looking to use Mellor’s departure as an opportunity to reduce the team headcount.

Crédit Agricole was marketing five tranches of Euroyen bonds this week, following a very popular offering in the format from BNP Paribas earlier this year.

After Volkswagen printed the biggest trade in its history the previous week, the company’s International Finance arm sold a six tranche dual-currency deal on Monday. In total, the company raised more than €14bn equivalent in a week.

Spain’s Red Electrica Corporation has signed the first ever syndicated loan on a blockchain, though some loans officials away from the deal question how useful the technology will be in its goal of reducing transaction times.

The European Financial Stability Facility finished off its 2018 issuance this week with what was likely the last jumbo euro benchmark of the year. The deal was solid, but SSA bankers warned the euro market feels “tired”.