Euro

Europe's largest property company Unibail-Rodamco announced an agreed offer of $15.7bn for the equity of Westfield Corp, the Australian shopping centre operator, on Tuesday. The deal, which valued the enterprise at $24.7bn, was the second retail property consolidation in a week as the sector comes under the M&A spotlight, writes Nigel Owen.

France is looking to syndicate an inflation linked benchmark in 2018, after announcing its funding plans for the year on Thursday.

Iceland was awash with orders on Wednesday for its first deal since 2014, which came alongside a tender offer for the sovereign’s July 2020 bonds.

Investors’ attentions have turned to 2018 in the absence of any new IG corporate bonds this week. And, despite tight spreads and low yields, they expect similar conditions to prevail, albeit providing lower returns given the lower starting point than 2017.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg could opt to bring a green bond if it decides to come to market in 2018, GlobalCapital can reveal.

Belgium will issue its first sovereign green bond in the first quarter of 2018. Several countries in southern Europe are investigating the option, but they are less likely to issue in the near future.

Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale’s funding need for 2018 will be less than half that of 2017, the French agency said on Tuesday. It also provided an update on its merger with Agence France Trésor, the French sovereign debt agency.

This week, bankers and investors in the European high yield market sounded a message of confidence to potential issuers of bonds with triple-C ratings, even after BMC cancelled one such deal.

Unibail-Rodamco has taken out a €6.1bn bridge facility from its advisers Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, to finance its acquisition of Westfield Corp, the Australian shopping centre operator, for an enterprise value of $24.7bn.

China Huiyuan Juice Group is in the loan syndications market for a €160m three year deal — its second fundraising this year.

France’s pioneering work on sovereign green bonds took another step forward on Monday, as it named the members of its green OAT evaluation council on the same day that the group held its first meeting.

After a slow first two days of the week, some participants were calling the end of a successful 2017 for corporate bond issuance. However five new deals were priced in the next two days as French and German issuers in particular benefited from investor desire to keep buying.