Commerzbank

Swiss life sciences firm Lonza launched a €300m debut Schuldschein on Monday, offering dollar and euro tranches to attract, among others, Singaporean, Malaysian and other Asian lenders looking to lend dollars.

The Loan Market Association has appointed four new board directors following its annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Germany’s Jost Group, which makes safety systems for trucks and trailers, wants to list in Frankfurt to raise €130m of new capital and a yet-to-be-determined amount for the selling shareholders.

Lonza launched a €300m Schuldschein on Monday. The Swiss medical firm’s debut Schuldschein comes denominated in dollars and euros in a bid to, among other things, attract southeast Asian lenders, with natural dollar lending needs.

International schools operator Nord Anglia has tightened pricing and accelerated the deadline on its $1.22bn-equivalent euro term loan, while up to six leveraged loans are due to close syndication at the end of the week.

On Wednesday BP became the third UK issuer to sell bonds in euros this week. The €1.5bn dual tranche deal followed oil entering bear market territory on Tuesday.

Increasing numbers of commercial banks are investing in seven year Schuldschein loans, as attractive pricing and allocation is luring the lenders further along the credit curve.

It is often suggested that issuers have to pay up for issuing sub-benchmark sized deals. However, this week two corporate issuers printed successful €300m transactions with little discernible premium compared to benchmark transactions.

A trio of euro borrowers launched trades and a fourth picked banks on Tuesday in a market buoyed by a perceived renewal of European political unity following welcome results in elections in France and Italy at the weekend.

Although sentiment around the euro corporate bond market is favourable, following Emmanuel Macron’s party’s decisive results in French parliamentary elections on Sunday, only one new issue and one tap hit investors’ screens on Tuesday.

Afreximbank had taken books of $2bn for its new seven year note on Tuesday morning as the bid for African credit gathered pace.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten slam-dunked a single day euro execution on Monday into a market buzzing from a pair of eurozone election results over the weekend. Another two issuers have lined up euro deals — including one debut.