Europe

The marketing of French oil company Total’s £250m seven year bond issue on Tuesday was the second attempt in recent months to reconfigure the way investors are sold bond deals. The first attempt by Vodafone, in July, struggled to gain support euro investors. However, the response to the Total deal suggests that approach could be replicated, at least in sterling. Nigel Owen reports.

Spanish clothing retailer Cortefiel priced its leveraged buyout bond on Thursday, in a sign that the high yield market is open for challenging credits.

As expected, no euro issuers were tempted to compete with the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday, however British Land took the opportunity to bring its first senior bond since 2006.

Debut benchmark covered bonds issued this week by Banco di Desio e della Brianza and Nykredit were preceded by Danske Hypotek’s inaugural deal, and with new names expected to follow later this year, the number of active issuers should reach new heights.

Turkey ignored softness in the market to double the size of its 30 year dollar bonds on Wednesday, after reopening its May 2047s for a further $1.75bn.

Russia’s Far-Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco) has reached a milestone in its dollar bond restructuring saga, after almost half of the holders of its bonds agreed to some key terms.

US prosecutors have widened the net in their case against Turkey’s Halkbank after bringing new charges against the country’s former economy minister and the bank's former general manager for breaking Iranian sanctions, sending Halkbank assets lower but not hitting the rest of the country’s banking sector.

Nationwide Building Society was looking to cement the outstanding secondary market performance of its £550m core capital deferred shares (CCDS) by issuing roughly £500m more of the rare product on Thursday.

Rating agency Moody’s has slapped beleaguered Russian private bank Otkritie with a two notch rating downgrade this week, as subordinated debt holders in the bailed out bank look set to take heavy losses.

Axel Weber, chairman of UBS, warned ahead of the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting on Thursday that “unknown unknowns” lie in wait for markets once the course of unwinding quantitative easing begins.

Financial institutions steered clear of the primary market in euros on Thursday as participants awaited the outcome of a well-talked-about European Central Bank meeting.

Seed company Syngenta has mandated banks for a global dollar transaction, its first foray into the market since China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) completed its acquisition of the company this summer.