Europe

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the German State of North Rhein-Westphalia (Land NRW) have picked banks for dollar benchmarks expected to hit the market on Wednesday.

Dominik Felsmann has landed a job at ABN Amro as head of leveraged finance Germany. The bank has also named Arjan Van Rijn as global head of leveraged finance origination.

Both the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and Dexia Crédit Local were able to take advantage of a strong market and cut 3bp from the spreads paid on their euro benchmarks on Tuesday.

An emerging market credit research analyst at Exotix has left to join Renaissance Capital next week after a month of gardening leave.

UPC Holding, the telecoms company owned by Liberty Global, and UK car glass specialist Belron announced multi-currency term loan offerings on Tuesday.

Italy’s banks and politicians are worried about the European Central Bank’s non-performing loan crackdown. They are right to worry — but the answer is bankruptcy reform.

National Bank of Greece attracted a diverse and deep pool of demand for its €750m three year covered bond on Tuesday, illustrating its ability to overcome investor concerns over its high non-performing loan ratio and the sustainability of the Greek government’s debt reduction programme.

Italian gas utility Snam repeated the new issue-and-tender strategy it used in 2016 as it printed its third ever 10 year bond on Tuesday. The company was not able to replicate the zero new issue premium it achieved 12 months ago, but did still price at a very tight spread.

On Tuesday, Iren, the electricity and gas distributor, announced a new benchmark green bond alongside a tender offer for some of its outstanding bonds.

Mizuho Financial Group came to the market with a bond financing green projects on Tuesday, becoming the second Japanese bank to do a green euro deal in two weeks.

Banca IFIS became the fourth Italian bank to open books on a new public bond offering this October, with the country’s financial institutions returning to the capital markets ahead of the introduction of non-preferred senior debt in Italy.

The IPO of SMCP, the French fashion group that owns the brands Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot, is covered, one working day into the bookbuild.