Europe

BNP Paribas Fortis managed to get an oversubscribed order book for its seven year covered bond and priced the deal inside the previous Belgian issue from ING. However, the deal was unusually slow to build and, with market conditions deteriorating, spreads are expected to widen.

Turkey’s Akbank has signed a $980m-equivalent syndicated loan, sending a wave of relief through the debt markets — though the borrower had to make significant concessions amid Turkey’s economic difficulties.

Unédic drew large demand for its first 10 year euro benchmark of the year on Wednesday, allowing the issuer to considerably tighten its spread through pricing.

The chair of the influential UK Treasury select committee, Nicky Morgan, told a conference of derivatives bankers, lawyers and regulators, that despite the threat of “serious problems” for cross-border derivatives contracts in a Brexit no-deal scenario, she was “reasonably confident that a no deal scenario will not cause the whole sector to fall over”.

This evening, 3i is selling another chunk of its stake in Basic Fit, the Dutch operator of affordable gyms, via an accelerated bookbuild led Morgan Stanley and ABN Amro.

NRW.Bank nipped in ahead of this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting to tap keen investor interest in dollars on Wednesday, pricing a deal that on-looking bankers said was flat to its curve.

Western European companies from across the borrowing spectrum are looking to cut down on the number of lenders in their banking groups, with three confirming that their loan groups had become cumbersome.

La Banque Postale (LBP) won plaudits from rival bankers for its comfortably oversubscribed €750m covered bond which was priced with a modest new issue concession, despite the challenging 10 year tenor, competition with other agency supply and, most importantly, a much reduced order from the Eurosystem.

Nomura has made several appointments to its flow rates trading and sales operation in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Mediobanca has privately placed a €250m tap of its Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite six year deal issued in July.

When UK telecoms company Vodafone announced in May that it had agreed to buy some of US rival Liberty Global’s European operations, it said it would use existing cash, €3bn of mandatorily convertible bonds and new debt, including hybrid bonds to fund the €18.4bn acquisition. On Wednesday, Vodafone sold the hybrid bonds, using four different tenors in three currencies.

Europe’s leveraged finance issuance is fast catching up with last year’s record volumes, as investors open deep pockets. But the reverse side of this exuberance are weaker terms and more vulnerable issuers, said market watchers.