Europe

Slovenia took full advantage of its early market move on Thursday to secure its tightest ever spread, and what it expects to be its lowest coupon, on a new euro-denominated note.

Crédit Agricole Cariparma returned to the market on Thursday to complete the final leg of its 2018 funding requirement, taking advantage of the exceptionally tight spread environment while it still exists.

The visible deal pipeline of the European high yield bond market is expected to end the week empty, but the list of potential new borrowers keeps growing. Speciality paper manufacturer Fedrigoni is the latest.

Given the success of the corporate bond market's opening deals of the year, it was perhaps surprising that only one issuer came to market on Thursday, but Daimler achieved similar success to the RCI Banque Wednesday deal that it copied.

BNP Paribas was in the market for its second non-preferred deal of the week on Thursday, ahead of what is expected to be a busy year for the asset class.

After a booming 2017, with record deal volumes across securitized asset classes, S&P Global Ratings has predicted there will be $1tr of issuance across global ABS markets in 2018, driven by sustained economic expansion.

Banks and other financial firms operate in complex lattices of regulation. But for any firm based in the UK and operating internationally, Brexit means they have no idea what regulations will apply, come March 2019. They cannot afford to do nothing, yet do not know what to plan for. As Nigel Owen reports, the response has been to plan for every scenario, including relocation from London.

The dollar market is poised to get off to a flying start to the year in the Nordic region, which hosts all three of this week's scheduled dollar borrowers.

Refresco’s $1.25bn acquisition of Cott’s drinks bottling business raises monopoly concerns, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said this week. But market sources see a quick fix ahead.

Ireland opened 2018 with a €4bn print deemed “spectacular” by a banker away from the deal, who said that it was priced flat to the sovereign’s curve.

A pair of public sector borrowers blew away the cobwebs in the sterling market on Wednesday, printing a combined £1.5bn.

Investment grade corporate bond market players only had to wait one day for the first new deals of 2018. Renault and BMW both brought new paper to market on Wednesday, selling a total of €2.75bn of bonds with little premium.