BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas has hired two senior bankers and folded its corporate clients, financing and advisory (CCFA) units and corporate trade and treasury services (CTTS) units into a single new division, as it looks to expand its offering to corporate clients.

The recruitment of the former head of European M&A at Barclays is a statement of intent from BNP Paribas, which has serious aspirations for its UK business. Expect some trademark caution though, writes David Rothnie.

Eirik Winter, a veteran Citigroup banker, will join a rival global bank as chief executive for the Nordic region.

German retail group REWE International has become the first company to launch a Schuldschein at benchmark size this year, a sign that German blue chips may be active in the market this year.

On Wednesday French toll road operator Autoroutes du Sud de la France followed the path its compatriot Orange had taken on Tuesday by issuing a €1bn 12 year new issue. Meanwhile Italian auto finance bank FCA Bank was also in the market with its first benchmark floating rate note.

Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi batted away suggestions on Tuesday that its deal would suffer from pricing on the same day as the Turkish sovereign, printing a $350m five year bond from a book of $1.15bn and 15bp inside initial price guidance.

AirAsia head honcho Tony Fernandes hinted at a potential IPO for the budget airline group’s India arm through his Twitter account on Wednesday.

The euro market is providing borrowers with superb execution — KfW gathered its largest ever book for a 10 year on Tuesday — but investors are requiring healthy new issue concessions in order to commit.

The European Investment Bank on Tuesday produced its largest dollar deal in nearly three years — and its biggest book in even longer — in what bankers said was a clear signal of the strength of demand in the currency. The Inter-American Development Bank is next up in dollars, and more supranationals could still enter the fray this week, with supply expected to keep at a rampant pace until mid-February.

Italian electricity supplier Enel sold its second green bond on Tuesday, repeating the timing of its first such offering in 2017, which it also sold in the second week of the year. The latest deal was the same size, but priced tighter and won a larger order book, despite printing with a longer maturity.

The world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev’s last visit to the euro bond market was to help finance its $107bn acquisition of SAB Miller in 2016 and on Tuesday the issuer returned with a smaller offering that investors were still thirsty for.

The Turkish sovereign has mandated three banks for its usual start of year dollar bond while Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi released guidance for its note. But the latter drew criticism for going head to head with its sovereign.