Europe

Bulgarian insurer Eurohold has set the minimum size of its five year bond to €50m but postponed pricing from Wednesday to Thursday to allow more orders to come in.

The inaugural issuance of Baikal bonds — denominated in renminbi and issued in Russia — has come closer this week as the Russian Ministry of Finance toured Hong Kong and Mainland China on a non-deal roadshow, sources told GlobalRMB.

ING has hired a new head of financials credit trading as it looks to build up an EU financial trading desk in London.

The Financial Conduct Authority has issued a first statement of objections to four asset management companies, which it believes may have broken competition law during the marketing of two IPOs in 2014 and 2015.

Greece was able to exchange more than €25bn of old bonds for new assets in an exercise designed to normalise the borrower’s curve. The offer ended on Tuesday, in the midst of discussions about the conditions that will be attached to Greece’s next tranche of emergency loans.

Maisons du Monde, the French furniture retailer, has issued its first ever convertible bond, raising €200m to refinance a term loan. The deal was eight times oversubscribed and priced at the best end of terms for the issuer.

Norilsk Nickel, the Russian nickel and palladium producer, is in the market for over $1bn through a syndicated loan. The facility is unsecured, and pricing has been driven down to pre-sanctions levels, showing the risk appetite for Russian credits is on the rise.

Lead banks have scheduled a December date for the syndication of a €3bn equivalent multicurrency loan package that is supporting PAI and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation’s leveraged buyout of bottling company Refresco.

On Wednesday Spanish telecoms company Telefónica brought the third hybrid from a Spanish corporate issuer this November, following deals by Ferrovial and Iberdrola.

Discussions between European member states over the supervision of foreign clearing houses have prompted potential changes to European Commission legislation that would strengthen the role of central banks and the ESRB, according to a leaked document seen by GlobalCapital.

Stadshypotek returned to the covered bond market for the third time this year to issue its second seven year at the tightest ever spread to mid-swaps. But the fact leads took so long to decide on the deal size hinted that execution had not gone smoothly.

Banco Comercial Português (BCP) found plenty of demand for its first ever tier two deal on Wednesday, even though a number of investment funds made it clear that they would not invest in Portuguese debt until the Bank of Portugal addressed the way it handled Novo Banco in 2015.