Deutsche Bank

Constellium, the Paris-headquartered aluminium producer, launched a €535m-equivalent bond on Friday December 5, to back its plans to buy US drinks can sheet manufacturer Wise.

Two Chinese borrowers are in the market with Taiwan targeted loans. China Packaging and Phoenix Healthcare Group have recently launched borrowings, seeking a total of $350m between them, said bankers away from the deals.

The Indian government has finally kicked off its divestment programme for the fiscal year, opening books for the sale of shares in Steel Authority of India Ltd (Sail) on Friday morning as it looks to add millions of dollars to its coffers.

Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation, which has priced its S$513m ($393.8m) real estate investment trust IPO at the top of the range, has now allocated a large chunk of the deal to long only investors, leaving very little on the table for other bidders.

Ethiopia made an impressive debut on Thursday, December 4, amid less than ideal market conditions. The recent sell-off in African sovereign bonds was of little concern to the sovereign which received strong investor feedback on account of its strong growth story and JP Morgan Emerging Market Bond Index (EMBI) eligibility. In addition, investors came away satisfied that the bond was priced sensibly.

Goldcar, the Spanish car hire provider, set price guidance for a €275m ($341.95m) 5.5 year term loan ‘B’ at a bank meeting on Monday, to back its buyout by Investindustrial.

Spectrum Brands, the US consumer products conglomerate, held a lender call on Tuesday for the €150m loan portion of a €400m-equivalent debt bundle that it will use for acquisitions and general corporate purposes.

Altice made a firm step towards adding to its European telecoms portfolio on Sunday, when Brazilian telco Oi accepted a raised €7.4bn offer from the French company for the Portuguese assets of Portugal Telecom.

Volvo joined the growing group of corporate issuers of hybrid capital on Wednesday, when it priced its first hybrid bonds. The deal was popular with investors, generating €7.4bn of orders.

Medtronic grabbed the record for the biggest high grade corporate bond issue of 2014 this week, as investors returned from their Thanksgiving breaks keen to put cash to work in one of the busiest weeks of the year.

The recently quiet subordinated market — excepting Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's thunderous additional tier one (see Asia section) — saw a bit of action this week as UK challenger bank Aldermore privately placed a small additional tier one deal and Société Générale’s insurance subsidiary announced a roadshow for a perpetual bond.

Sterling investors worried about a drop in Gilt supply from the United Kingdom this financial year after Wednesday’s autumn statement received some good news on Thursday, as a new issuer mandated banks on Thursday for a debut bond.