Europe

Mediobanca followed Intesa into the Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite (OBG) market on Thursday and, despite coming with an easier to sell shorter maturity, demand was down by almost two-thirds compared to the earlier deal. Even so, bankers have not ruled out the possibility that one or two Italian banks could soon follow.

UK retailer J Sainsbury’s has signed a £3.5bn loan package to back its acquisition of Walmart-owned Asda, with the company raising more debt than the cash component of the deal despite analysts raising concerns about the borrower’s recent debt levels.

BNP Paribas said on Thursday that it had hired Paul Hollingsworth as UK economist.

HSBC Germany has launched a digital platform for Schuldschein issuance called Synd-X, following in the footsteps of Helaba and LBBW. But unlike its German peers, it aims to preserve the role of banks as gatekeepers to the market.

Germany may have been kicked out of the FIFA World Cup but they still know how to issue a good Pfandbrief, according to a German lead manager who worked on HSH Nordbank’s five year Pfandbrief that was launched on Thursday alongside an Austrian deal — Raiffeisenlandesbank (RLB) Oberösterreich’s 10 year, which also achieved an excellent reception.

Corporate bond issuance from central and eastern Europe, excluding Russia, is up nearly 30% year on year as borrowers move early to lock in low coupons before the European Central Bank stops buying bonds and starts raising interest rates.

On Wednesday the UK’s final court of appeal rejected Goldman Sachs’ attempt to recover money lost on a loan to Banco Espírito Santo through the British courts. The judge said that the EU’s framework for dealing with failing banks could be undermined if the actions of resolution authorities could be challenged outside of their home country.

Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust raised gross proceeds of approximately £45.6m ($60m) in a fixed price IPO in London this week, less than half the fund set out to raise.

GlobalCapital requests that market participants nominate the best lead managers, issuers and deals for the voting shortlists for this year’s Covered Bond Awards. These should be submitted by July 8 and will be voted on by the market from late July to mid-August.

Richard Gathercole has been appointed as a director in high yield sales at NatWest Markets, the capital markets division of Royal Bank of Scotland, where he has had several roles in speculative grade and distressed debt since 2007.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia has launched its first ever 50 year benchmark, coming to market just as Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten landed at the short end.

Two corporate bond issuers from opposite ends of the ratings spectrum found similar success with new bonds on Wednesday. The seven and eight year tenors found favour with investors looking to put new cash inflows to work.