Europe

Borrowers and investors marched on in the European leveraged finance markets this week, pricing €1.5bn of high yield bonds while bankers have been able to tighten terms on new loan deals during syndication. Deals pulled earlier in the week in the US are already a fading memory.

The City of Vienna entered the Schuldschein market on Thursday with a €75m triple tranche transaction.

On Wednesday morning, it was doom and gloom as secondary spreads had widened and only Vodafone dipped its toe into new issuance waters. But after a stable afternoon and a positive session in the US, Thursday morning brought calm.

Eurex, the Deutsche Boerse-owned derivatives exchange, will launch options on fixed income exchange traded funds on November 20.

Danish power company Ørsted has wasted no time in issuing under its new name after leaving the Dong Energy brand behind earlier in November. On Thursday the issuer sold a green hybrid and a green senior bond, as well as announcing a tender offer for its shorter dated bonds.

Achmea Bank has issued its first conditional pass through covered bond, pricing in exactly the same steps with the same final result as Aegon had earlier this week.

Elis, the French laundry group, has raised €600m from 12 banks, in part to pay off the bridge facility it used to acquire UK rival Berendsen in the summer.

Deutsche Hypo issued its first green Pfandbrief flat to where it would have issued a vanilla deal, and though it was unable to tighten the spread from refined guidance, leads built the book in record time.

BNP Paribas came to the market on Thursday with a benchmark long 10 year senior non-preferred bond, its second deal in the format in eight days.

UK pest control company Rentokil launched its €400m seven year offering on Thursday morning, alongside two three year offerings from the utility and car leasing sectors.

Westpac was in the market on Thursday with a €500m green bond, in the same week as HSBC Holdings priced its first sustainable bond at a size of $1bn.

Gazprom this week sold its first euro denominated bond of the year, a €750m seven year, with a new issue premium that a lead manager has estimated at only 0bp-2bp.