Credit Suisse

Royal Dutch Shell has cancelled its £10.07bn ($14.56bn) bridge loan, instead opting to pay for the cash element of its $82bn acquisition of BG Group with cash on balance sheet.

The Swiss bank is dialling down its expansion plans for its corporate finance division but remains committed to the business, writes David Rothnie

B&B Hotels, France’s third largest budget hotels group, closed the book for its €339m seven year term loan ‘B’ at a wide price this week, as the European leveraged loan market works through the last of the deals underwritten in 2015.

On Tuesday night the loan market gathered in all its finery to hear the winners of the 13th Syndicated Loan, Leveraged Finance and Private Placement Awards at the Guildhall, in London. The results are below.

Few bankers were happy with their bonuses at the start of 2016, despite a surge in the value of their payments.

If this is what first quarter results are going to be like, count GlobalCapital out. Another bank with a pretty decent set of businesses, and another stonking loss. Credit Suisse appears to have taken after Deutsche in all of the wrong ways.

Credit Suisse’s numbers were ugly, whichever way you slice them — a loss of Sfr6.4bn ($6.44bn), shares down 11%, bonuses down 36%. Even after “adjustments”, the bank still lost Sfr420m in its core businesses.

Deutsche Bank’s riskiest subordinated debt hit fresh lows on Thursday, and some of its rivals have been dragged into the sell-off as investors worry about certain exposures and tumbling profits.

The pent-up demand from equity owners to sell down blocks of shares was evident again on Thursday evening, as two deals were launched, after the Euro Stoxx 50 had managed to rise 0.3% on the day.

Credit and equity markets suffered a crisis of confidence this week, with several previously crowded trades rapidly unraveling in the face of rising concerns about European banks, US Federal Reserve policy and a perceived lack of European Central Bank firepower to revitalise the continent’s stagnant economy.

As European equity markets briefly rallied on Thursday, Ford Credit Europe (FCE Bank) and Praxair stepped into the breach, printing €1.9bn of paper for a starved primary market.

Credit Suisse announced its full year results for 2015 this week with the Swiss lender reporting pre-tax losses of Sfr2.42bn ($2.39bn). However its Asia Pacific business was one of the standout performers posting a pre-tax gain.