Europe

Greece has fired the starting gun on its latest debt rehabilitation effort, after launching a roughly €30bn exchange offer for 20 bonds it issued as part of its restructuring in 2012.

European finance ministers are unlikely to reach a deal on clearing house (CCP) resolution when they meet on December 5, despite commitment from Estonia — which chairs the debate — to close an agreement by year's end.

Property has been the standout sector in a good year for sterling corporate bond issuance. On Wednesday, Places for People added to issuance with its first sterling bond of 2017, but failed to tighten from initial price thoughts.

Norwegian energy company Statoil agreed to pay $4m to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Tuesday, over allegations that the company attempted to manipulate an index to benefit its propane swap positions.

Single digit new issue premiums had survived the secondary market weakness in corporate bonds of the last few days, but on Wednesday Vodafone had to pay up as it sold a three tranche deal significantly wide of where its existing bonds were trading.

OP Mortgage Bank was set to price the first €1bn sized covered bond of the week on Wednesday and, despite offering hardly any new issue premium, the transaction found strong demand reflecting a popular but exceptionally rare tenor. At the same time, Switzerland's Valliant Bank issued its debut covered bond and Sparkasse Hannover issued a sub-benchmark Pfandbrief.

Banco Santander is preparing to sell its non-preferred senior bonds in the public yen market, with pricing expected in early December.

Russian state owned giant Gazprom released initial price thoughts for a euro seven year bond on Wednesday morning at a level that bankers away from the deal said was around 20bp back of the company’s curve.

Some weaker days in the secondary market have focused minds on market conditions going into the final weeks of trading for the year. But investors are still lapping up covered bonds.

Investors are keeping a close eye on the widening of corporate bond spreads that started in the second half of last week and has continued this week. And for the first time in many weeks, issuers are having to pay more for their new debt.

Abu Dhabi beat Saudi Arabia to the punch this week by launching an IPO of the petrol stations of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc).

Standard Chartered Bank has hired a DCM banker from Commerzbank to cover Turkish clients.