Crédit Agricole

The Republic of Slovenia has repeated its 2020 feat of being the first sovereign issuer in CEEMEA to launch a bond by coming to the market with a mandate on Tuesday. Despite the apparent rush for bond funding, however, many believe that EU funding will provide some of what CEE countries would otherwise have taken from public bond markets.

BMW set Europe's investment grade corporate bond market off to a flying start for the year on Monday, printing €1.5bn of debt at or inside fair value. A range of borrowers are said to be lining up trades in the German vehicle maker's slipstream.

Klépierre, the French shopping mall company, has signed a €1.385bn sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, with the coronavirus pandemic-hit borrower pushing out its refinancing needs to March 2024.

Crédit Agricole’s Benjamin Lamberg has been appointed as the bank’s new Taiwan chief executive officer, GlobalCapital Asia has learnt.

Alterea, the French property developer, attracted strong demand for its sub-benchmark bond issue on Tuesday, prompting bankers off the trade to praise its execution.

Sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) have hogged much of the limelight in the socially responsible investment markets this year. But transition bonds, which had fallen out of favour for some time, have demonstrated there is clear demand for the product, following a strong deal for Snam this week and guidelines due for release in the coming days, writes Mike Turner.

Two banks landed tight with environmental, social and governance (ESG) themed deals this week: Crédit Agricole settled at a record low on its social bond debut, while DZ Bank came even tighter with its first senior non-preferred green bond.

Rating: Baa1/A-/A+

Crédit Agricole landed at an extremely tight level on Wednesday morning as it made its social bond debut with a seven year senior non-preferred deal, following in the footsteps of last week's near zero yield print from Svenska Handelsbanken.

BP, the oil major, was joined at the long end of the bond market on Tuesday by railway company Deutsche Bahn, as issuers take advantage of low spreads to stretch out their debt maturities.

The UK’s SSE Renewables and Norway’s Equinor, two energy companies, have signed what lenders say is the largest ever offshore wind project financing, a £5.5bn package for a wind farm off the UK coast.

BP, the UK oil major, and car rental company Sixt have hired banks for new bonds as the end of year issuance window looks set to stretch into next month.