Commerzbank

HellermannTyton, the UK cable accessories maker, has signed a €230m five year revolving credit facility to refinance its bonds and an €80m undrawn revolver.

German internet payment Wirecard sold a €365m block of new shares on Tuesday night, raising capital to fund acquisitions after the shares had seen a strong recent run.

French carmaker Renault obtained a whopping €6.2bn book for its €500m seven year bond yesterday, as it rode the wave of demand for crossover-rated corporate bonds.

Germany's HeidelbergCement has slashed the margin it pays for syndicated loans, signing a new €3bn five year refinancing loan with an out of the box margin of 95bp, a 30bp reduction on the debt it is repaying.

Renault, the French carmaker rated Ba1/BB+, benefited from the strong demand for crossover credit today when it priced a €500m no-grow bond with a new issue premium of just 5bp.

Diaverum, the Swedish operator of dialysis clinics, has mandated five banks to arrange €708m of senior credit facilities, but has yet to pick a left lead.

Poland snatched up funding in the Schuldschein market last week, and is expected to return to the market again this year. Elsewhere, financial institutions from the country are expected to print more private placements.

Corporate bond issuance is set to get busier again in Europe next week, bankers say, with a drive-by deal also possible on Friday.

Covered bond spreads are so tight that there is almost no scope for secondary performance, bankers have warned. “Core markets are in a zone of low oxygen,” one said on Tuesday, as KBC Bank priced a deal within a few basis points of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen and Deutsche Kreditbank.

The European Stability Mechanism will sell its first benchmark deal of 2014 next week and SSA officials have their money on it being a seven year.

Corporate bond issuance is set to get busier again in Europe next week, bankers say, with a drive-by deal also possible on Friday.

Blog can’t quite work out whether it is surprising that the majority of investment bankers polled last week hated Valentine’s Day, or completely unsurprising. On the one hand, bankers (speaking in strict stereotypes, of course) are happy for an excuse to flash the cash. On the other hand, most are also known for being able to make rational decisions.