Europe

K+S, the German potash processor and mining group, launched on Thursday its first bond since losing its investment grade ratings.

UK hospital funding vehicle St James Oncology Finance has brought perhaps the most unusual trade of the week in the corporate bond market, printing a triple tranche sterling bond that included a US private placement and inflation linked debt.

The corporate primary bond market showed no sign of fatigue on Thursday as Bupa Finance and American Tower whittled away at spreads to launch deals inside initial price thoughts.

Nets, the largest Scandinavian payments processor, priced its first euro bond on Thursday amid keen demand for top rated high yield paper that is leading to low coupons.

Turkey’s six year sovereign sukuk is expected to be priced flat, or even inside, its conventional curve for the first time following the asset class's inclusion in the JP Morgan indices, even as the country's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s bid to consolidate power grabs the headlines.

Athens-listed Motor Oil Hellas Corinth Refineries sold a sub-benchmark size note on Thursday, the second Greek corporate deal in the euro high yield market so far this year.

Santander UK opened books for a new sterling additional tier one (AT1) transaction on Thursday, marketing the deal against a backdrop of calm following the UK’s decision to trigger Article 50.

Arvos, the auxiliary components business, has a bank meeting scheduled for Friday in London for a €130m incremental term loan as it looks to repay its existing second lien facility.

The UK will run one syndicated bond issue in the first quarter of its 2017-18 financial year, as Gilts shrugged off the triggering of the country’s journey towards the European Union exit and a vote in the Scottish Parliament calling for a second independence referendum.

Rabobank, Bankinter, Jyske Bank and Helvetia all tightened pricing by at least 20bp for new tier two bonds, having decided Thursday offered the best window to market deals to investors.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Christopher Niehaus, a former managing director in industrials investment banking at Jefferies, for sharing information about a client’s rights issue to impress his friends.

Gates Global, the US power transmission belt maker, rescheduled commitments for a euro term loan add-on to Thursday, after increasing it by nearly €200m from around €275m. The move came in a week when JP Morgan analysts and others voiced concern about risks in the leveraged finance market.