Europe

It took a trim of the offering size and issuer’s leverage ratio to sway high yield investors, but French glass packaging manufacturer Verallia finally priced its new bond on Thursday.

Unilabs, the Apax Partners-owned medical diagnostics firm, has agreed to buy Alpha Medical from Mid Europa Partners in what will be the largest healthcare deal in central Europe since 2008.

Commerzbank’s profits slumped for 2016 and for the fourth quarter, as the euro-orientated commercial bank benefited less than other large banks from the flurry of Trump-related trading and the steepening US yield curve.

Proposals for the treatment of covered bonds in the net stable funding ratio (NSFR) could spur structural innovation, may incentivise issuers to manage collateral more efficiently and, according to Fitch, could spur secondary market trading.

Société Générale showed it was on a steady forward march on Thursday, posting a robust set of results that benefited from resilient performances across both its retail and investment banking arms.

Elis, the French bed linen and laundry company, has completed its oversubscribed €324m rights issue to finance the reduction of its leverage after buying competitors Indusal in Spain and Levebras in Brazil.

The EU Commission wants member states and the EU Parliament to fast track its work on the hierarchy of creditors. But Germany is reluctant, and some MEPs want to tie it to the reshuffle of the bank recovery and resolution directive (BRRD) – a package that will not be adopted in the short term.

Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane (ICBPI) on Thursday sold a payment-in-kind bond to fund its latest acquisitions in the consumer card sector.

Sidera Funds has launched a new investment sub-fund that tracks euro and US high yield indices from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but goes beyond geographies and currencies.

Export Credit Bank of Turkey has followed Turkish peer Akbank into the loan market, launching the first of its semi-annual one year refinancings.

Severstal looks set to add to the growing surge of Russian supply with its plans, set out on Thursday, to meet investors ahead of a potential dollar bond.

Alfa-Bank offered up a rare rouble-denominated Eurobond on Thursday. Making it rarer still was that the issuer is not a state-owned entity and bankers said its progress would be a strong barometer for other privately owned borrowers who may wish to use the product.