Europe

Rating: Aaa/AAA

Guarantor: Republic of Austria

In a slightly rickety week for new issues, German healthcare group Fresenius’s €2.6bn four tranche gave market participants a boost as they contemplated sources of supply in 2017.

Rating: Ba1/BBB-

Rating: Baa3/A/A-

US President-elect Donald Trump left market participants dumbfounded by saying that the dollar is too strong just a few days before his inauguration on Friday — a position he won after a campaign promising infrastructure spending and tax cuts. But while Trump’s ability to disrupt markets is likely to be a feature of the next four years, the start of an unwinding of the ‘Trump trade’ could help public sector borrowers bring 10 year deals to a red hot dollar market, writes Craig McGlashan.

Euro bonds at the 10 year maturity and beyond have proven difficult so far in 2017, but a strong performance from the European Investment Bank may have shown other issuers what it takes to pick up size at long maturities.

The European Energy Exchange is to introduce a German intraday floor futures contract as well as Swiss day and weekend futures contracts.

Euro-denominated investment grade corporate bond supply eased off on Thursday, providing market participants with the chance to take stock after nearly three weeks of rapid supply.

Europe’s nascent tier three market is rapidly proving itself as a happy medium between tier two and senior, capable of pleasing issuers and investors in equal measure. Phoenix Group Holdings priced only the third example this week, and the first in sterling, but the deal’s impressive performance suggests the asset class could have a bright future.

Fresenius, the German healthcare company that launched the first equity-neutral convertible bond in 2014, returned on Thursday to issue another successful deal, this time to complete the financing of its €5.76bn acquisition of Quirónsalud, the Spanish hospitals group.

Executives from the Channel Islands Stock Exchange (CISE) travelled to London on Wednesday to meet investors and discuss their concerns over the growing trend for high yield borrowers to list their bonds there.