BNP Paribas

Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel launched transactions into two currencies on the same day. The issuer opened the books for a ten year dollar issue on Monday morning and a few hours later, it hopped over to the euro market where it opened the books for a seven year offering at the London opening.

First Quantum Minerals priced its $850m bond at the wide end of 7%-7.25% price guidance on Thursday evening, a rare occurrence in the CEEMEA market. But books were over three times oversubscribed and the deal was increased from $650m to $850m.

State Bank of India has closed its loan at $554.5m, managing to gather enough demand during syndication to increase its borrowing from the launch size of $390m.

A long-awaited new wave of mergers and acquisitions is set to buoy the struggling European syndicated loan market, senior bankers said this week after the emergence of a jumbo bridge loan to finance Bayer’s $14.2bn acquisition of Merck & Co’s customer care business. Michael Turner reports.

Eramet, the French nickel, manganese and alloys group, returned to the bond market on Wednesday after its €400m debut in October last year, for a tap that raised €125m.

Environmental sustainability consultancy ERM has increased the euro tranche of its $655m seven year first lien loan to €76m, part of a $950m package of covenant-lite debt.

Environmental sustainability consultancy ERM has set an original issue discount of 99 on the $175m eight year second lien tranche of its $950m covenant-lite loan facility.

Glencore Xstrata hosted a packed bank meeting on Wednesday for its $17.3bn loan refinancing, but some loans bankers considering the deal said the flat 40bp fee structure for those joining the syndication left little reason to provide anything other than the smallest ticket.

China’s Huawei Technologies is preparing to set foot in Europe with its $1bn revolver, marking the first time the company has opened syndication up to the European market. Asian lenders will miss out on the chance to lend to the credit, but bankers are applauding the move as it will help the borrower broaden its banking group, writes Rashmi Kumar.

Emerging markets-focused miner First Quantum Minerals has released price guidance of 7%-7.25% for its $650m eight year bond, a level indicating that leads could push pricing inside the yield level at which FQM last came to the market in 2012.

After speculation that Taiwan Cement Corp International (TCCI) would close its $1bn five year fundraising as a club deal, the borrower did a U-turn last week by launching the loan into syndication.

The Eurodollar bond market is misty and unreliable terrain, but the expert navigator is Nestlé. The Swiss foods group proved its sure command of the territory on Wednesday with a $650m issue – the first in the market for about eight months.