Europe

A dollar benchmark from Rentenbank scored comfortably higher than a euro trade from the European Financial Stability Facility in the latest BondMarker results. That is in keeping with a few weeks where the dollar market has been far more resilient than a wobbly euro sector.

Zur-Rose, the Swiss retail pharmacy, has set the terms on its Sfr200m new share issuance, to fund the acquisition of Medpex’s e-commerce activities.

The SSA dollar market’s resilience in the face of a series of potential headwinds was standing firm this week, with Netherlands Waterschapsbank’s benchmark from late last week tightening while bonds in the euro sector widened.

The Federal State of Brandenburg mandated banks on Monday for its second ever euro benchmark in the 20 year part of the curve, following its debut in the maturity in 2016.

Rating: Aaa/AAA

JTC, the UK provider of institutional and private wealth services, has increased its sterling revolving credit facility provided by HSBC from £10m to £55m, adding three banks to its lending group.

BPCE returned to the covered bond market on Monday to issue a €1bn eight year deal. Although the new issue premium was modest, the slightly tricky tenor may have deterred some investors and the subscription ratio was the lowest BPCE has experienced in four years.

Gunvor, the Swiss energy and commodities trading company, has signed a $1.68bn revolving credit facility, having increased it during syndication as lenders piled into the transaction.

Nemera, the French maker of drug delivery devices, and UK school operator Cognita are funding their new ownerships in a euro leveraged loan market dominated by acquisition deals.

Secondary spreads in the euro public sector market have widened heavily across the curve with just over a month to go before the European Central Bank is expected to put an end to its Public Sector Purchase Programme. SSAs are also being affected by the political ructions from Italy, Brexit and the global trade war, said bankers.

Europe’s banks continued to lose global significance, according to the Financial Stability Board’s 2018 list of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs), although Groupe BPCE was re-added to the list. The French bank says this will not affect its funding plans.

ING has been busy in the capital markets in recent months, and it took another €4.5bn of senior funding through its operating company on Monday, backed by €7.5bn of demand from investors.