Crédit Agricole

After 10 days of very scanty issuance and some weak markets, more stable conditions on Tuesday brought a salvo of five deals to the euro corporate bond market, offering a wide range of single-A and triple-B credits.

Russian potash fertiliser Uralkali has signed its five year $1.45bn-equivalent loan with 13 lenders joining the syndicate. With Uralkali and Suek now signed, lenders have started to prepare for EuroChem.

French pharmaceutical firm Ipsen is holding a roadshow for possible US private placement notes this week, according to market sources.

A pair of Middle Eastern banks, Emirates NBD and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, both placed short-dated sterling MTNs this week.

Buyers of credit default swap protection on bonds issued by Rallye, the holding company of French supermarket chain Casino, will find out on Friday how their positions might be settled, reports Owen Sanderson.

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) struck a lonely figure in dollars this week with a $650m two year floating rate note on Wednesday, though syndicate bankers said that several borrowers are lining up to pull the trigger on trades in the first week of June.

Portugal sold its long-awaited debut Panda bond on Thursday, becoming just the third European sovereign and the first from the eurozone to tap China’s bond market.

Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) was on the cusp of printing a $650m two year floating rate note on Wednesday, going against the recent trend among SSA issuers in dollars for fixed rate securities.

Brussels Airport has issued a €500m US private placement in three tenors in a “blowout transaction”, according to market sources.

Crédit Agricole has hired a former Barclays DCM banker for its corporate DCM desk.

Anna D’Ercole is joining Santander from Crédit Agricole, where she has been working in the FIG team.

The green bond market is going through one of its most intense periods, with a wide variety of high profile issuers joining the market. But there are also hints of novelty in the market. The Netherlands and KfW have used systems for classifying green investors, while Germany is considering a radical idea: whether Bunds could be issued with detachable green certificates. Jon Hay reports.