Europe

North American private placement (PP) lenders are being routinely chosen over UK investors by borrowers in sterling, as a consequence of increasing advantages won through cross currency swaps, US PP participants have said.

Commodity trader Glencore received a glorious response from the loan market to its latest refinancing, with the size of its annual revolver leaping by almost $4bn during syndication to close at $9.7bn. But senior bankers warned that this is a sign of lender desperation, not borrower strength, writes Michael Turner.

Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri, the largest mobile operator in Turkey, set final terms for its $500m bond on Thursday afternoon in London.

The European bond market this week finally showed its first acknowledgement that the end of European Central Bank (ECB) quantitative easing (QE) is nigh. Opinions are still split as to whether the bond buying will end in September or be extended to December, but new issue pricing has stepped wider regardless, write Nigel Owen and Bill Thornhill.

Czech investment fund PPF Group has kicked off the syndication of a €3.025bn loan, which it is using to fund the acquisition of Norwegian telecoms group Telenor’s central and eastern European operations.

Volkswagen Financial Services had been conspicuous by its absence in the euro corporate bond market in the first quarter of 2018. Having been the largest corporate issuer by volume in 2017, the company had used other markets so far this year before selling a new triple tranche deal.

The euro and dollar SSA markets are set to return to action next week, having taken something of an extended break following the Easter weekend.

Nationwide Building Society issued its first sterling covered bond for two years on Thursday and showed that demand for the product was still strong as it picked up £1bn of five year funding.

Moody’s has slapped a downgrade review on UK engineering group GKN’s Ba3 rating following the successful hostile takeover bid from industrial conglomerate Melrose.

France tapped its Green OAT on Thursday for the third time, raising €1.096bn.

Volkswagen Financial Services had been conspicuous by its absence in the euro corporate bond market in the first quarter of 2018. Having been the largest corporate issuer by volume in 2017, the company had used other markets so far this year before selling a new triple tranche deal.

ING Bank returned to the covered bond market after a five year absence on Thursday to issue a €1.75bn 10 year deal. A generous starting premium and a rise in 10 year swap yields helped to boost demand.