Crédit Agricole

The Swiss National Bank’s shock decision to unpeg its currency from the euro on Thursday morning made selling a new May 2023 bond a tougher than normal task for Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale, although the deal still hit full subscription, according to one of the leads. With the European Central Bank expected to announce sovereign quantitative easing next week, the window for eurozone issuers to print is getting smaller — although a new agency is known to be looking.

Enel, Italy's leading power company, announced on Wednesday that it would issue a benchmark 10 year bond in an exchange offer for up to €5.5bn of existing bonds, as part of a liability management exercise. The transaction is meant to extend Enel's maturity profile.

After a flurry of mid-market leveraged financings, investors are now preparing for the first large cap deal of the new year. SIG Combibloc, the Swiss drinks carton maker, has invited lenders to bank meetings in London and New York.

Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale took a lead from the European Financial Stability Facility on Wednesday, mandating banks for a novel eight year deal. The announcement came the same day as the French agency unveiled its funding target for 2015.

Evraz, the Russian steel and mining company, has closed the tender offer on its 2015 notes after investors accounting for $278m of Evraz's $576.7m 2015 notes agreed to a company buyback of the note.

SSA bankers lauded Portugal on the timing and execution of a dual tranche benchmark deal on Tuesday, as investors ploughed into the offering. Elsewhere, Spain revealed its syndication plans for 2015 and Italy broke records at the long end of the curve.

Gas Natural, the Spanish gas and electricity company, issued a €500m 10 year bond on Tuesday, attracting €4bn of orders and paying a minimal new issue premium.

Book sizes for Tuesday’s offerings of senior fixed rate deals have fallen sharply, compared to the unusually swollen orders placed for new issues in recent days, but the market is still steaming ahead.

After the extraordinary fireworks of Santander’s €7.5bn block trade on Thursday January 8, the year’s more workaday business in European equity capital markets began in earnest on Monday, as five IPOs were launched.

Gecina, the French real estate investment trust, issued a €500m 10 year bond on Monday, attracting a vast order book and paying a small new issue premium.

A week before the European Central Bank is expected to announce a programme of quantitative easing and Greece elects its next president, investors are loading up on senior unsecured paper from top names in FIG, and being paid big new issue premiums. Investors are demanding more in part because of fears of volatility in coming weeks stemming from the ECB and Greece, bankers said.

In the first subordinated FIG deal of the year, Crédit Agricole Assurances, the wholly owned insurance subsidiary of Crédit Agricole SA, launched and priced an eleventh hour attempt at getting grandfathering for capital deals that aren’t compliant with new Solvency II capital rules.