Europe

High yield borrowers were roadshowing €3bn of mostly lower rated bonds this week. Although there is appetite for riskier paper, investors say, demand is expected to be selective.

The head of one of Europe's highest profile sovereign debt management agencies has returned to the sell side to run his new firm's investment banking business in his home country.

The UK building and services company had borrowed Schuldschein loans, which are unlikely to be paid in full — and the Schuldschein market couldn’t care less.

Spain’s Gas Natural came to the investment grade bond market on Tuesday for an €850m 10 year deal, with the borrower seeing almost triple demand for its notes as rumours bubbled about a potential stake sale from major holder Repsol.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, Société Générale and BNP Paribas issued a total of €2.25bn of senior non-preferred debt on Tuesday, offering four, five and seven year tenors.

DNB Boligkreditt differentiated itself in a crowded covered bond market on Tuesday by issuing the first five year deal of 2018, a strategy that paid off, given it was also the largest deal of the year.

Raiffeisen Bank International announced a mandate for the first additional tier one (AT1) issue of the year, giving investors a chance to dive back into an asset class which saw exceptional returns last year. Crédit Agricole Assurances also announced a mandate for a tier two bond.

NIBC and Raiffeisenlandesbank NiederÖsterreich-Wien (RLB NW) found solid demand for their pair of €500m 10 year covered bonds issued on Tuesday. But with the tighter Austrian deal extracting more demand at a tighter spread, investors clearly showed a preference for the hard bullet maturity.

Tom Muoio, head of European leverage finance capital markets at Jefferies, who was appointed six years ago, will be leaving the bank, as former HSBC leveraged finance director Bala Ramesh joins the team.

Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) successfully issued its first covered bond transaction since June 2016 with the high spread overcoming credit quality and volatility concerns.

As global stock markets soar into 2018, BNP Paribas is finding value in eurozone companies' stocks, which look relatively cheap compared with the US.

Crédit Agricole has named Atul Sodhi as head of global debt capital markets corporates, for which he will relocate from Hong Kong to Paris.