Commerzbank

Commerzbank did not appear hindered by uncertainty around its future in its senior preferred issue on Tuesday, while Nordea picked up green demand for its own offering. Meanwhile, BNP Paribas drove in pricing on its senior non-preferred deal, and ended up turning off some investors altogether.

Rating: Baa3/—/BB+

A trio of French companies moved ahead with Schuldschein deals this week, and bankers expect the coming weeks to be packed with borrowers seeking to raise funds before the summer.

Commerzbank’s small and medium sized German corporate clients did not want to be serviced by the firm if it were merged with Deutsche Bank, according to Michael Reuther, head of the corporate clients unit at the former. His unit is now hoping to take more revenue from its existing clients, after growth in several of them in the first quarter.

MTNs from Middle Eastern banks have flowed freely over the last week, with borrowers printing a range of currencies to take advantage of basis swap opportunities, amid little competition from European financials, say bankers.

Rating: Aa1/AAA

Two African borrowers are set to hit the road for dollar bonds, extending a run of deals from the continent after a slow start to the year.

Barclays Bank kept the primary covered bond market alive on Wednesday, launching its first deal of the year and its first Sonia-linked transaction — though at £500m it was the bank’s smallest covered bond yet.

The European Stability Mechanism offered very little new issue premium on a pair of taps to wipe out its €2.5bn funding needs for the second quarter in one go.

BP on Thursday gave the European corporate bond market its first test of a really big, multi-tranche, investment grade issue since Easter, and showed that the market is every bit as keen as before the break. Order books for the three part bond were big and new issue premiums slim to invisible.

Groupe PSA, the French car maker, has sold more than €500m of Schuldscheine, as a flurry of French firms find fortune in the market.

Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank will have to sort themselves out without the help of each other, after merger talks collapsed this week. Speculation mounted as to whether Deutsche would now be forced to slash its investment banking operations, and about whether Commerzbank would be embraced by another European peer.