BNP Paribas

One of BNP Paribas' most senior debt bankers, Tim Drayson, has left the firm.

Just as European equity capital sales made a prompt start to the year on Tuesday, the first viable window available, with the €1bn NN Group block trade, the equity-linked market also wasted no time. Safran, the French aerospace and defence company, issued a €650m convertible at what a banker claimed was a record low yield.

Borrowers who issued covered bonds this week that are eligible for the European Central Bank’s purchase programme (CBPP3) did not receive such a strong reception as those whose bonds were not eligible.

A healthy euro benchmark pipeline is building for next week, with one supranational looking to print and a pair of sovereigns believed to be considering deals, after a week that didn’t finish as strongly as it started for core issuers.

KfW raised €3bn with a slow burning seven year benchmark on Thursday, leaving SSA bankers wary about the threat of over saturation in the currency as several issuers mull deals for next week.

Wednesday brought red back to equity traders' screens after a buoyant Tuesday, but trading action confirmed the satisfactory execution of this year’s first two substantial equity capital markets deals in Europe: the €1.03bn block trade in NN Group, the Dutch insurer, and French aerospace firm Safran’s €650m convertible.

Investment grade loan pricing has stopped falling — meaning the flow of refinancing deals is ebbing. Mergers and acquisitions, as ever, are what banks want, and they are confident of getting more in 2016. But will banks finally get round to weeding out unprofitable relationships? Rob Cooke reports.

The US is top of every European banking chief executive’s to-do list for 2016, as they race to comply with new regulations that will define the future of their international ambitions. Consolidation beckons, writes David Rothnie.

The European Stability Mechanism is seeking ideas for a bond issue next week, as the euro market burst back into life following a holiday across much of Europe on Wednesday.

LGC Group, the UK life sciences company, will hold a bank meeting on January 13 for £500m of debt to finance its sale by Bridgepoint to KKR.

Europe's equity capital market lost no time in hitting back after the scary start of Monday, when world markets tumbled after China's stockmarket went into freefall and Saudi Arabia and Iran's war of words became more rancorous.

A $600m loan for the upstream oil and gas arm of Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) has seen commitments worth $100m come in so far.