BNP Paribas

France's Danone has completed syndication of $13.1bn of loans to fund the $12.5bn acquisition of North American organic food and drinks company White Wave. But there might not be many more jumbo deals this year, as political volatility looks set to hang over the M&A market for a little longer, writes Robert Cooke.

Energias de Portugal made an opportunistic grab for euros on Thursday, proving that even as August begins, healthy order books and negative new issue premiums are still available for corporate bond issuers.

Lat Am bond bankers said Brazilian mining giant Vale had timed its second bond issue of the year to perfection, but the bond left investors happy too as it popped in the grey market on Wednesday.

BNP Paribas showed the euro market was still open with a €750m 10.5 year tier two deal on Wednesday, jumping in ahead of the introduction of ‘tier three’ to profit from strong results and receptive markets.

A $113m term loan to back Hong Kong-listed Aupu Group’s proposed take private has been allocated among seven banks, according to a source.

A pair of public sector borrowers mandated banks on Monday to run small taps of dollar bonds, a theme that SSA bankers expect to run for the next few weeks.

Just one week after it issued a €1bn 15 year bond in the euro market, Vodafone swooped for sterling on Monday issuing an £800m 33 year bond.

France's Danone has completed syndication of $13.1bn of acquisition loans to fund the purchase of North American organic foods company White Wave. Only relationship banks were invited to participate.

Spain’s Cellnex Telecom, a broadcasting towers business, hit the investment grade and high yield euro markets on Monday, just over six weeks after it roadshowed for the deal.

A strong second quarter performance in fixed income trading has bolstered BNP Paribas’ corporate and investment banking results and helped cushion falls in its equities business and domestic retail banking arm.

Terna, the Italian electricity grid company, has signed a €500m five year revolving credit facility, a year after repaying a previous club deal.

Mediq, the Dutch pharmaceuticals firm owned by Advent, has launched a €200m dividend recapitalisation, holding an investor call on Wednesday. This follows German industrial services firm Bilfinger offering a €700m term loan at a bank meeting on Tuesday.