Europe

The votes are in on last week's solitary benchmark from the SSA sector. The BondMarker voters have delivered their verdict on Oesterreichische KontrollBank's €1.5bn September 2024 note.

KfW has sold Europe’s first blockchain-based bond, although a quirk of German law meant the transaction had to be replicated on paper. While the bond was instantly settled, those involved say a crucial component is missing if this technology is to become part of capital markets’ infrastructure: a cash settlement facility on a distributed ledger.

The doyenne of derivatives policy in Europe, Kay Swinburne MEP, warned on Thursday that political urges in the European Union risked tainting the oversight of foreign clearing houses.

Volkswagen Leasing brought its second euro corporate bond deal of 2017 on Monday. The €2.25bn dual tranche offering took Volkswagen’s total issuance this year to €17.25bn. This is more than twice as much as General Electric, the next highest issuer by volume.

On Thursday, Belgian gas transmission system operator, Fluxys, successfully priced both sub-benchmark tranches of its latest corporate bond deal it had set out to sell when it met with investors earlier in the week. The 10 year tenor was the company’s primary aim, but it was also willing to explore reverse enquiry for a 15 year tenor.

Bank capital investors have eagerly gobbled up billions of euros worth of additional tier one (AT1) paper this year, even as prices have soared to record highs. But underwhelming receptions for a pair of new trades this week suggested that banks have almost reached the limit on how much they can squeeze investors, writes Tyler Davies.

Heineken used the quieter end of the week in terms of issuance to price its second benchmark corporate bond issue of the year. The sixth benchmark issue of the year in Europe from a beer producer was the only deal in the market on Friday.

A wave of German and Austrian property companies is coming to the equity-linked bond market for cheap funding, writes Aidan Gregory. The attractive terms they are obtaining are partly of their own making: a reward for the companies' strong performances.

Total, the French oil company, has been a frequent issuer of euro bonds, raising €7bn in 2016 and more than €5bn in each of the two previous years. However, it waited until the last week of September to sell its first new issue in euros in 2017.

Turkey’s state-owned Ziraat Bank on Monday morning took orders of $1.25bn to print its second senior trade of the year in what bankers said was a notably softer market.

Credit Bank of Moscow this week revealed plans to buy back chunks of its outstanding Eurobonds as fears of further bail-outs kept Russian subordinated bank paper under pressure.

The debt restructuring saga at Norwegian paper company Norske Skog took a sharp turn this week wherein a breakthrough with senior investors was quickly waylaid by a group, claiming to represent more than half of the company’s unsecured creditors, rejecting the latest proposal.