Europe

Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have launched the loan backing Triton Partners and Luxinva's buyout of IFCO Systems, the Germany-based reusable plastics business of Australia’s Brambles.

CaixaBank took advantage of strong market conditions to issue a €1bn seven year senior preferred transaction on Tuesday with strong demand allowing the issuer to price flat to its curve. At the same time, RBS opened order books for a dollar-denominated five year senior deal.

BBVA was set to replenish its additional tier one (AT1) capital base on Tuesday, launching a deal designed to give it more options when it comes to calling outstanding bonds.

Danske Bank and Crédit Agricole took a combined €2bn of tier two debt out of the market on Tuesday, while Bawag was also active on a busy day for FIG syndicates.

A French public sector borrower is ready to hit the road to market its inaugural benchmark bond, following the launch of its Euro Medium Term Note programme at the end of last year.

The Republic of Turkey is returning to the bond markets for the fourth time this year with a dollar tap of the $2bn 7.625% 2029s it sold in January, continuing to front load for its $8bn 2019 funding target.

Slovak Vseobecna uverova banka (VUB) attracted a €2.5bn orderbook from 160 mostly new investors on Tuesday for its first benchmark covered bond and the debut benchmark from Slovakia. The deal sends a strong signal to other borrowers across Central and Eastern Europe, where several banks are lining up with debut benchmarks of their own.

Russian borrowers are returning to life as investors start to brush off sanctions risks, though issuance is still weak compared to the same time last year. Evraz hits the road for a five year dollar bond on Wednesday and Credit Bank of Moscow (CBM) came to market on Monday.

Uralkali, a Russian potash fertiliser producer, has sent out a request for proposals to lenders in a bid to raise $1bn. But bankers say that the Russian market is beset with difficulties that are delaying the few transactions in the pipeline.

Telstra, Australia’s national telecoms company, returned to one of its most important funding markets, euro bonds, on Monday, with a smallish benchmark deal that joined the remarkable wave of deals that have achieved negative new issue premiums.

Abertis Infraestructuras, the Spanish toll roads group, launched on Monday the four tranche bond issue it had roadshowed for last week, and found Europe’s corporate bond market as avid for paper as it has been for the last couple of weeks. That enabled it to achieve a huge book totalling €14.5bn and at least one negative new issue premium.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp has agreed a deal to provide post-trade infrastructure services to enable SEB, the Swedish banking group, to meet its obligations under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation.