Europe

Commodity trader Glencore has ramped up the size of its short term revolver by almost $4bn between syndication launch and signing, with dozens of banks piling into the refinancing exercise in the latest example of deal starved lenders scrabbling for places to put money to work.

Swiss telecoms provider Swisscomm found strong demand for its new corporate bond deal. However, investors were very clear on where they saw the value in the deal and the issuer had to pay significant spreads to ensure the deal’s success.

ING has mandated leads for its first covered bond in five years. Although demand for the rare credit is likely to be strong, the secondary market has continued to soften.

ABN Amro issued the tightest ever 20 year covered bond on Wednesday, but was obliged to pay a considerable new issue premium, causing a repricing of its curve and the market.

Three new Russian equity capital markets deals were launched this week, with bankers confident that European equity investors are comfortable enough to buy Russian risk despite diplomatic tensions between the country and the West growing more hostile.

Singaporean bank DBS Group came to the market with a tier two bond on Wednesday, opting for euros as it looked to open up new sources of debt capital.

Aegon announced a dollar deal on Wednesday on the back of selling part of its business, but the trade was threatened with being caught up in escalating fears of a trade war.

FIG bankers said that Société Générale had started with ‘aggressive’ price thoughts for a new dollar-denominated additional tier one deal on Wednesday, as the French bank looked to raise capital ahead of an upcoming call date.

Several factors contributed to the standstill in issuance from investment grade issuers in the corporate bond market before Easter, but one that investors focussed on was the performance of new issues after they had priced.

As negotiations over the future of Italy’s government begin in earnest, investors appear to be betting that political risk for the country has been overestimated.

Schuldschein market participants expect an uninspiring pipeline for the next few months as the hangover of 2017's pre-funding spree is felt in the first half of this year. But traditional arrangers hope the itch to win mandates is satisfied by a search for borrowers from new regions, and not a scurry down the credit spectrum.

Mireille Dyrberg, the former COO of Nex Group fintech subsidiary TriOptima, has joined data reconciliation firm Duco.