BNP Paribas

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

US private equity firm Lone Star sold a 9.9m block of shares in Spanish real estate developer Neinor Homes after the market closed of Wednesday, via an accelerated bookbuild that was “substantially “oversubscribed,” according to a banker involved.

Ford Automotive Finance (China) is preparing for a Rmb4bn ($614m) deal in the onshore asset-backed securities market – the first by a foreign originator in 2018. But the carmaker is not in the mood for change in the New Year, sticking with the same format it printed in last August.

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.