Commerzbank

Natixis has been building out its Asia Pacific presence, making some senior changes to its global markets team and adding three new bankers.

After two huge days of corporate bond issuance, Thursday was much quieter, with issues only from Vier Gas Transport and SBB Norden — not because the market was worse, but just because most of the issuers that wanted to come this week had crowded into the first two days.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank was marketing a five year senior preferred bond in the euro market on Thursday. The deal was launched at a spread unmoved from price thoughts, with order books only €125m larger than the deal size.

The hail of issuance in European corporate bonds continued at full pelt on Wednesday as Orange and National Grid joined the fray with multi-tranche deals. Investors and issuers seem equally eager to do business.

Europe's corporate bond market opened emphatically for business on Tuesday, as seven issuers banished all memories of the summer holiday. Despite there being plenty of choice for investors, demand was high across the board. Multiple deals were two to three times oversubscribed, while the largest, a €3.5bn four trancher from Siemens, the machinery maker, was nearly 4.5 times covered.

With no major new issues in sight, the high yield bond market has been dominated by the news of troubled businesses struggling to come up with credible turnaround plans.

ZF Friedrichshafen is targeting the end of August to launch its grand return to the Schuldschein market, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The German car parts maker’s €2.2bn issue in November 2014 is the biggest deal the market has ever seen but a bigger deal may be on the way.

Germany’s Dürr has signed a €750m sustainability-linked loan using blockchain technology, as the mechanical and plant engineering firm continues its push into sustainability refinancing that started with a green Schuldschein.

Michael Reuther, head of Commerzbank’s corporate clients division, expects more firms to enter the bank’s "intensive care department" as economic pressures weigh on European corporates. And in his unit the cost of risk more than tripled in the second quarter, helping to shrink operating profits.

Commerzbank has appointed its first head of syndicated and leveraged finance, a unit created within its new capital markets division.

Daz Zhang is leaving Commerzbank to lead the Greater China debt capital markets team at another bank, according to a source close to the matter.

Hungarian gas and oil company MOL has extended part of an existing €555m revolving credit facility by one year, in what is one of the few sparks of activity in the country's syndicated loan market so far this year.