Commerzbank

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.

EuroWeek held its Syndicated Loans and Leveraged Finance Awards at London’s Guildhall last Wednesday. The great, the good and — by definition of not winning an award — the not so good, of the loan market turned out in droves to celebrate. For the benefit of those who weren't there, and for those who were but might have missed them, here are five more important revelations from the night.

Commerzbank, which recorded a decent set of full year results this week, is pushing to further its corporate finance business in several areas, the head of its corporate and markets division told EuroWeek.

After a long road to recovery, Commerzbank’s markets and corporates business was the group’s stand-out performer in the second quarter, writes David Rothnie.

Anything but euros worked for top-flight sovereign, supranational and agency issuers in the MTN market this week, as instability in both the banking and sovereign sectors rocked equity and CDS markets.