Europe

Shareholders of the Baltic Exchange have approved the firm’s takeover by the Singapore Exchange.

Pulled deals are traumatic for those involved but unlikely to derail European corporate bond issuance while the European Central Bank is still buying the market.

CME Group rolled out a suite of weekly expiring, S&P index-based options on futures this week, while European rival exchange Eurex introduced trading of weekly expiring equity option contracts onto its exchange that reference SMI, Switzerland’s blue chip stock market index.

The oil and gas exploration firm DEA, owned by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, announced €400m of six year non-call 2.5 year senior notes with roadshows on Tuesday and Wednesday in London.

Shares in Hamborner Reit, the German real estate investment trust, traded flat on Tuesday after the company completed a €166.5m rights issue to finance the expansion of its property portfolio.

Babcock International, the UK support company for infrastructure and defence services, issued a £250m no-grow bond on Tuesday, the same day the Bank of England began buying sterling corporate bonds.

Municipality Finance has made its long awaited entrance into the green bond market with a dollar five year on the same day that a new green exchange launched.

Vodafone shrugged off a troubling start to the week for primary bond markets on Tuesday by selling a benchmark long seven year transaction that was more than three times oversubscribed and won a single digit concession.

A pair of public sector borrowers were able to sell tightly priced euro deals on Tuesday, with another two trades likely to follow on Wednesday.

German chemicals supplier Lanxess picked two banks to supply its €2bn bridge facility for the acquisition of Chemtura. More banks are set to join in syndication, according to a banker close to the deal.

Vakifbank’s €500m five year covered bond has rallied after Moody’s cut its rating and those of five other Turkish covered bond issuers. The move implies that the rating downgrade has not delivered a fatal blow to prospective Turkish supply.

Stadshypotek attracted a robust following for its first covered bond backed by Finnish assets, and even though the final spread was much tighter than leads initially indicated, few investors fell out.