BNP Paribas

The covered bond market enjoyed its busiest week in the last three years as 16 borrowers launched benchmarks with a nominal value of €13.5bn ($15.70bn) across a range of currencies and tenors. But investors clearly showed a preference for the seven year — of which there were seven deals, accounting for half of this week’s supply.

UK travel operator Thomas Cook is set to price its €400m high yield bond on Friday, riding a wave of successful high yield issues this week.

New BNP Paribas investment bank boss Yann Gérardin is an equity derivatives man through and through, having built the business from scratch since he joined in 1987.

Huhtamaki, the Finnish producer of food and drink packaging, signed a €400m five year revolving facility last week. The company sold its plastic films business in December and is consolidating its business into food packaging.

Virgin Media expects its leverage to remain within levels set by its parent company Liberty Global, after it raised a £925m-equivalent bond to finance a merger with another subsidiary, UPC Ireland.

Pirelli, the Italian tyre maker, has revved up the year's loan market business with a €1bn facility signed last week, that the company said was three times oversubscribed.

Demand was robust for floating rate paper on Tuesday as Commonwealth Bank of Australia sold its first deal of 2015 and Caisse Centrale Desjardins du Quebec (CCDJ) returned to the senior unsecured euro market after an absence of almost five years.

After the extraordinary fireworks of Santander’s €7.5bn block trade on Thursday January 8, the year’s more workaday business in European equity capital markets began in earnest on Monday, as five IPOs were launched.

GE Capital issued an €850m five year floating rate note and a €1bn seven year fixed rate bond on Monday, bringing total public issuance by the company so far this year to over $7.1bn.

Telecom Italia, Italy’s largest telecommunications operator, on Monday brought to the high yield market the first €1bn issue of the year, as part of a plan to repay slices of four other bonds.

Eurofins Scientific, the French food and drugs testing company, has mandated three banks for an investor roadshow that could lead to a senior unsecured bond.

Two more issuers built on a strong start to the year for euro-denominated floating rate notes on Monday, as UniCredit sold a five year bond and BNP Paribas opted for a two year tenor for its second FRN of the year. UniCredit was able to draw solid demand for its deal, despite printing at an aggressive level compared to its fixed rate curve.