Europe

Citi’s Asia Pacific head of technology, media and telecom (TMT) for corporate and investment banking has taken on additional responsibilities as the firm’s co-head of global investment banking technology franchise.

Tonight’s hail of block trades includes, besides the Lonza and Zoopla deals, at least two other transactions.

Zoopla Property Group, the UK owner of property search websites, completed an accelerated bookbuild on Tuesday night to raise £76.5m of new capital, to buy Hometrack.co.uk, a property information service.

Lonza, the Swiss pharmaceuticals company, completed a 9.4% capital increase through a Sfr865m accelerated bookbuild on Tuesday night led by UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the first step in a two-pronged move to raise Sfr3.3bn for an acquisition.

Disclosing Pillar 2 ‘guidance’ is discretionary and perhaps even discouraged, but banks risk falling foul of speculation if they choose to keep their full supervisory capital demands a secret.

Russia’s Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) has drawn high interest from banks as it becomes one of the first borrowers this year from the country to open talks for a loan.

Fondo de Amortización del Déficit Eléctrico (FADE) was warmly welcomed by capital markets on Tuesday for its first benchmark in 18 months, while Asian Development Bank hit screens looking for its first syndicated euro deal in almost three years. HSH Finanzfonds also raised cash on Tuesday.

Varex Imaging, the Palo Alto-based X-ray equipment manufacturer, has had a busy January. Following its spin-off from parent company Varian Medical Systems, the firm has found a $600m loan package to acquire PerkinElmer’s medical imaging business.

Five banks have lined up to underwrite a loan and bridge financing to laboratory services operator Cerba Healthcare for PSP Investment’s secondary buyout of the French firm. But the deal comes as Fitch said on Tuesday that buyout multiples have hit a post-crisis high.

Crédit Mutuel CIC on Tuesday became the first French covered bond borrower to begin and finish pricing at a spread that was markedly through OATs in this part of the curve, but the deal was a smaller size than expected.

Louis Dreyfus, the unrated, privately owned food commodities company headquartered in Amsterdam, pushed ahead with a senior unsecured bond issue it had previously tried to bring in November on Tuesday.

Bank of America was looking to walk away with a fresh chunk of total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) eligible senior debt on Tuesday, becoming the first issuer in the euro market to link the pricing levels of fixed and floating rate tranches.