Citi

Council of Europe crowned a week of tightly priced deals from high quality issuers in dollars with the first benchmark to reach the five year point of the curve since the dollar market was engulfed in volatility in mid-October. Sweden kicked off proceedings with an oversubscribed three year that came at the deepest level through mid-swaps for a deal of that tenor all year.

Ireland took a firm step towards joining the eurozone core this week by extending its curve to 15 years with a bond that market participants said was the clearest sign yet that it was pulling away from the rest of the periphery. But the gap between Europe’s top borrowers and weakest names may be about to narrow further very soon. This could be in response to moves by European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, who opened the door a little further to full blown quantitative easing.

Loans for Nigerian borrowers IHS Towers and Fidelity Bank are progressing well, said bankers this week. But while scheduled to close before the end of November, there is a strong chance they will run into December, loans officials conceded.

Alliance Boots’ £12bn leveraged buyout in 2007 was a titanic and totemic deal, which symbolised the height of the pre-crisis LBO wave. This week, the financing was done that will remove the UK pharmacy group’s name from the corporate landscape, merging it with US chain Walgreens into WBA — Walgreens Boots Alliance.

The senior market awoke this week following a brief hiatus in the aftermath of the European Central Bank and European Banking Authority’s comprehensive assessment of Europe’s banks. While covered supply has been robust during the intervening period, a lack of recent senior issuance helped Abbey, Citi, DVB Bank and Nomura back into the market.

Abengoa Yield, the contracted asset holding company controlled by Abengoa, the Spanish renewable energy company, has launched its first bond since it was listed on Nasdaq in June.

Mubadala GE Capital priced its $500m five year bond on Wednesday from a book of $1.3bn, having won large demand from accounts in North America looking for exposure to GE.

Israel Electric Company on Wednesday printed its $1.25bn 10 year bond at the tight end of price guidance and flat to the company’s existing curve. The book for the note was $3bn.

ICBC NY sneaked a triple tranche dollar bond into the market on Wednesday while most attention was concentrating on well flagged issues from Bank of China and China Construction Bank. ICBC took a hefty $2.25bn with the US targeted senior trade, proving that global appetite for Chinese bank debt is still unsated.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is set to raise at least Rp69.7bn ($678m) from the sale of some of its holding in Oil & Gas Development Corp (OGDCL), having set the floor price for the offering at Rp216 a share.

E-commerce firm Alibaba Group, which signed a $3bn revolving facility with four lenders on August 30, has completed a limited syndication of the financing. The facility features looser covenants than its last loan and marked the first US style revolver in Asia, said a banker on the deal.

Investors looking to diversify into India received their second opportunity in as many weeks when JSW Steel tapped the market with its maiden offshore bond on November 5. While the transaction did not get as much attention as Tata Motors did last month, it still resonated well with investors and ended up with a more than three times covered book.