Europe

Toronto Dominion had less luck than its Canadian peers when it issued the third sterling Canadian covered bond of the year this week. Even though the transaction offered a hefty concession there was only sufficient demand to issue in half the size of the previous deals.

Covered bonds issued this week by Axa Bank and Lansforsakringar Hypotek (LF Hyp) were priced at — or inside — fair value, partly reflecting a technical squeeze that was aggravated by the European Central Bank’s move to step up purchases in the secondary market.

Nykredit Realkredit has made sure that all of its ‘senior resolution notes’ will become non-preferred senior debt if Denmark updates bank insolvency hierarchies in line with a recent proposal from the European Commission.

French funeral group OGF launched a €960m cov-lite term loan ‘B’ this week as minority owner Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan plans to increase its stake to 74%.

Ocelot Partners, a special purpose acquisition company founded by LionTree Partners, Andrew Barron and Martin Franklin, this week successfully completed its $425m IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

The African Development Bank sold its largest ever benchmark on Wednesday, in a deal which bankers said should hammer home the issuer’s “new style” to investors. Meanwhile, Municipality Finance brought its first dollar benchmark of the year.

Finland’s Elisa was the only borrower to brave the market on Wednesday for a sub benchmark trade, despite bankers reaffirming their confidence that primary demand is as strong now as it has been all year.

Mid Europa Partners’ Lei1.4bn (€305m) loan for the buyout of Romanian supermarket chain Profi Rom Food has been oversubscribed, allowing the pricing on each tranche to be cut by 30bp.

The UK Debt Management Office will have to tackle its lowest issuance volume since 2007 in the next financial year, although analysts warned that the longer-term picture for UK borrowing could be affected heavily by imminent negotiations over Brexit.

The Schuldschein market has stumped up €900m for Volkswagen in its first syndicated, unsecured debt issue in its own name since it was engulfed by its emissions test cheating scandal in September 2015.

Tele Columbus led a band of issuers piling back into the leveraged loan market for repricing requests this week, ahead of an expected wave of new leveraged buyouts in Europe.

Salt Mobile, the Swiss telecom company, is asking an issuer-friendly HY market to tap some of its old bonds, waive covenants on them, and fund a dividend to its owner NJJ Capital with a new floater.