BNP Paribas

The green bond theme is picking up steam with banks, as Deutsche Pfandbriefbank looks to become the next in a growing group of banks to issue socially responsible investment (SRI) bonds.

BNP Paribas is in no rush to issue new style additional tier one capital, said chief financial officer Lars Machenil, with the bank taking a record-setting $8.97bn fine on the chin on Tuesday. The fine for helping clients evade US sanctions will trim the bank’s fully loaded common equity tier one ratio by 60bp to 10%, still higher than many of its European competitors.

German industrial packaging group Mauser this week priced the tranches of its $1.6bn acquisition loan at the tight end of guidance and inside it, while keeping covenant-lite terms on all tranches but one.

BNP Paribas will not receive any tax relief on its record-setting $8.97bn fine and will have to take the full hit to its second quarter results. As it digests the fine and one year ban from dollar clearing in its oil and gas business, the extent of the ordeal’s impact on BNP Paribas’s plans is being closely evaluated by market participants the world over.

Iren, the unrated Italian utility based in Reggio Emilia, issued its first public bond on Thursday, a €300m deal, after issuing three private placements in the past nine months.

Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) on Thursday tapped its 2019 bonds and added a new 10 year, bringing a total of $800m of new funding. And while there had been talk of the borrower following the Republic of Korea to the euro market, the pricing opportunity was not right.

Fined a record $8.9bn by the US Justice Department for evading sanctions on Sudan, Cuba and Iran and hit by a dollar trading ban on parts of oil and gas business that starts next year, it’s safe to say BNP Paribas has had better weeks. Quite how the heavy punishment will affect BNPP’s ambitions and operations in the US remains to be seen. However, the French bank remains determined to continue the development of its emerging markets business, including its successful CEEMEA franchise. GlobalCapital’s Francesca Young speaks to Nick Darrant, head of CEEMEA syndicate, Giulio Baratta, head of CEEMEA DCM and Alexis Taffin de Tilques, managing director, head of CEE, near-East and Africa DCM about how the bank wins business in the region.

French call centre operator Webhelp has tightened the original issue discount on its €120m loan from 99.5 to 99.75, and is due to allocate the deal on Friday.

China's Huawei Technologies has wrapped up syndication of its debut loan in the European market as commitments took the deal to a larger than targeted size of $1.6bn.

India’s ONGC Videsh is looking to make a return to the dollar market and possibly debut in euros after mandating five banks. The oil and gas company is among a growing number of Asian borrowers that are tapping the European investor base as accounts seek to diversify their portfolios.

Taiwan Cement Corp has relaunched its $1bn loan into syndication, after its going-private deal failed to gather shareholder approval earlier in the year. Now the company has revised some of the terms and changed the final purpose of the fundraising ahead of opening to the market.

Chinese company Giant Interactive has closed its $850m leveraged buyout loan almost three months after it opened into syndication, with eight banks joining the deal.