Deutsche Bank

Even if Napoleon probably didn’t say that he’d rather have lucky generals than good ones, it's a solid point and one that works just as well for bank chief executives. By that metric, Deutsche Bank’s John Cryan does not measure up. Still, he deserves longer to prove himself.

This week has not looked like anyone’s ideal opportunity for issuing corporate bonds in Europe, especially a challenging debut hybrid with a speculative grade rating. But Akelius, the Swedish housing company, saw a chance and pushed ahead.

Saudi Arabia has had to scale back banks grappling to get on its $16bn loan, which will be used to refinance a $10bn loan taken out in 2016.

That the Deutsche Bank board is said to be accelerating the hunt for a new chief executive should not come as a surprise as John Cryan looks increasingly isolated, but an internal promotion seems more likely, writes David Rothnie.

Chinese live mobile streaming platform Inke is looking to float in Hong Kong, filing a draft prospectus with the city’s stock exchange.

The strong momentum of the IPO market has been hindered this week as markets subject are buffeted by heightened geopolitical volatility in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and of new US trade tariffs.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Lok Yim as chief country officer for Hong Kong, succeeding Peter Lo who is retiring from the German bank after 15 years.

Russian gold miner Nordgold and coal company Siberian Coal Energy Co (Suek) signed syndicated loans in the week leading up to Vladimir Putin’s victory in the Russian general elections.

French supermarket group Carrefour returned to the equity-linked market on Thursday to sell a $500m equity-neutral convertible bond due in January 2024.

UK property company Hammerson has signed a new £1.5bn three year revolving credit facility, bringing in a dozen banks for a financing aimed at slashing the funding costs of its acquisition target, Intu.

Anheuser-Busch InBev timed a $10bn multi-trancher to perfection this week as it jumped into the market to extend maturities ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate interest rate hike.

Spanish utility Iberdrola had significant success with its debut green hybrid bond in November when it received €3.2bn of orders. However, its second such bond failed to tighten from initial price thoughts when it was issued this week.