Europe

Instituto de Crédito Oficial brought some rare short dated euro paper to the market on Monday, as it raised €500m with a long three year deal that drew heavy interest from investors outside Spain.

Law firm Ashurst has hired partner Tamer Bahgat and advisor Natalia Sokolova to its first European high yield practice.

Patheon, the US pharmaceutical contract manufacturing firm, held a lender call on Monday for a repricing of its €465m cov-lite term loan, as did fellow US company Platform Specialty Products for its own €575m term loan.

The European corporate bond market made a roaring start to the week on Monday with €4.85bn of debt due to be printed. A dual tranche trade from car maker BMW highlighted just how cheaply Volkswagen had to price its €8bn blockbuster last week.

Russian Railways, a regular issuer in the bond market, has made a return to syndicated loans by signing a $420m club deal at the end of last week, according to a banker on the trade.

Shares in Medica Group, the UK provider of teleradiology reports, have risen 44% above their IPO price since they began trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday, March 21, valuing the company at £217m.

Hochtief, the German construction firm, has raised €500m with a Schuldschein issue, more than triple the €150m it initially sought, as domestic and international investors welcomed a favourite issuer back to the market.

The Bank of England published details of its 2017 stress tests on Monday, unveiling a new ‘exploratory’ scenario that will help regulators consider how the UK banking system might evolve to confront long-term headwinds.

Another Turkish refinancing is underway, with Ziraat Bank’s syndication due to close this week, according to a banker on the deal.

Shares in Cobham, the troubled UK aerospace and marine technology company, fell 1.9% on Monday after it revealed that it was being investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority for its handling of inside information before its trading update in April 2016, when it announced its last rights issue.

Investment grade Chinese issuers are lowering their costs of funding in the euro bond market as the region’s liquidity improves, while the door also remains open to high yield issuers with operations in Europe, according to panellists speaking at the China DCM summit in Beijing last Thursday.

The UK will run one syndicated bond issue in the first quarter of its 2017-18 financial year, as the country prepared for a week heavy with political events.