Europe

This week's scorecard looks into the progress Nordic agencies have made heading into the final funding windows of the year

Akbank AG, the Turkish bank’s German subsidiary, has made its comeback to the loan market after a three year absence, for a €173.5m syndicated loan.

Mediobanca took advantage of robust market conditions, the limited funding window left this year and the growing possibility of peripheral rates volatility next year to issue a €750m 12 year covered bond at a considerably lower level than BTPs.

Equity capital markets bankers are eyeing with interest the possibility that Norway’s $1tr sovereign wealth fund might sell all its holdings in oil and gas stocks, potentially creating opportunities for block trades or other structured transactions.

French toll road operator Holding d'Infrastructures de Transport paid a hefty premium on Friday as it sold a dual tranche bond to help refinance its March 2018 note.

Was this week the last big push for corporate bond issuers to get funding done in Europe, or is there another week of issuance to come, the other side of Thanksgiving?

UK bank Barclays made its first trip to the Singapore dollar market on Thursday, grabbing S$200m ($147.5m) from an opportunistic transaction.

The march of responsible investing took a step into the high yield bond market this week, as both M&G and Candriam launched funds that will use environmental, social and governance factors to influence their investment choices.

A €30bn debt exchange by Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency began on Wednesday and should help the sovereign boost the liquidity in the long end of its curve, said SSA bankers. But some warned that liquidity cuts two ways, meaning the sovereign’s levels could be more sensitive to any bad news that comes its way — although those working on the deal feel the upside far outweighs that risk, writes Craig McGlashan.

Banks active in capital markets outside the European Union are using their exemption from the bloc’s onerous market abuse rules as a selling point to attract issuers, with the Swiss francs, Canadian dollars, and yen markets in particular focus.

Leveraged loan issuers used to call on direct lending players to pre-place small portions of their offerings, mostly second liens. But as direct lenders grow bigger funds, their appetite for loans is starting to impact entire deals.

The updated Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) has been in effect for 18 months, but its force in the markets is due to burn brighter as regulators take hold of the data deluge generated by MiFID next year. And fixed income will be in focus for the first time.