Deutsche Bank

Three block trades are in the market, as secondary placement activity remains busy. The most exotic of the trades is for Sergey Galitsky, founder of the Russian retailer Magnit, who is selling up to 1m shares in the business – apparently to finance improvements to the stadium at his football team, FC Krasnodar.

National Grid North America on Wednesday continued a run of euro issuance by US companies by issuing a €750m seven year bond.

The rally in government bonds since the European Central Bank announced its sovereign quantitative easing programme at the end of January has restored relative value in core European covered bonds. Though yields remain low, BPCE and Belfius Bank this week issued benchmark deals that enjoyed exceptionally good demand that was boosted by the return of real money rates investors to covered bonds.

Sweden broke the trend among European sovereigns for longer dated euro issuance this year, by mandating banks for a trade in the belly of the curve on Wednesday. The deal should provide a test case for euro deals at the shorter end since euro curves flattened after the European Central Bank announced it would buy sovereign debt up to 30 years, said SSA bankers.

Esmalglass, a Spanish producer of ceramic glazes and inkjet inks, is seeking a €250m loan to refinance acquisition debt.

Halkbank is on track to price the third financial bond from Turkey this year and is out in the market with a new $500m six year bond.

Chinese technology giant Tencent has decided to go ahead with a Reg S/144A transaction while it was in the middle of non-deal roadshow after it wasencouraged by strong feedback from US investors and the recent robust trading sessions.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice launched a highly successful block trade in B&M Retail, the UK discount retailer, this evening. By 6.30pm the trade had been increased from 100m shares to 120m, and was set to be priced at the day’s closing price, making the block worth £384m.

Dutch software company Exact Holdings has revised pricing on its $460m acquisition debt package, as the US loan market, where it is marketing most of the debt, continues to move wider.

Heathrow, London's largest airport, issued a €750m 15 year class A secured bond on Tuesday, extending its euro curve by eight years. Despite the bonds arguably being priced through Heathrow's euro curve, the deal was more than three times oversubscribed.

Export Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) returned to the Formosa bond market with a dual tranche offering this week, about a year after its debut in Taiwan. On Monday Kexim priced a Rmb300m ($48m) five year tranche at 4.05% and a Rmb500m seven year tranche at 4.20%, two sources told GlobalRMB.

HKBN, or Hong Kong Broadband Network, plans to start investor education for its IPO of around $600m from Monday, February 9, according to two bankers on the transaction. Indonesia’s Mitra Keluarga is also expected to hit the road on the same day for its own listing.