Europe

Poland’s mBank will hit the road next week for its first euro senior deal since November 2014. The bank did plan a roadshow for a euro bond in 2015 but decided not to go ahead with the meetings as the issuer did not like the levels available, according to an EM banker.

The yen market, for so long held back by an in-built caution as well as unfavourable swap rates, is rapidly re-establishing itself as crucial source of capital for some of the world’s biggest banks.

In this round-up, China is keen to expand FTZ sphere, yield differential continues to narrow between offshore and onshore bonds, and London reiterates desire to promote RMB internationalisation. Plus, a recap of our coverage this week.

IHS Markit has hired a senior official from ICAP to help grow its foreign exchange business.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has appointed a senior official of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to its board of directors, in its first ever appointment of a supranational institution.

IHS Markit will not overhaul the iTraxx Europe credit default swap index at the September roll next week to address UK bank debt regulations, say analysts, but the index operator will look at whether to change its rules in the near future.

Ardian and Tikehau both announced the closing of €4.5bn and €610m direct lending funds respectively this week, with Tikehau's private debt fund manager Jean-Baptiste Féat telling GlobalCapital that 2016 seemed to be one of its "best years".

The European Banking Authority is expected to deliver a report to the European Commission before the end of this year recommending a principles-based directive on harmonising covered bonds, said panellists at the European Covered Bond Council’s plenary session on Wednesday.

Debt collector Lowell GFKL — formed by a merger between the UK’s Lowell Group and Germany’s GFKL Group in late 2015 — hit the road to entice investors into its floating rate notes, which it will use to add a third company to the group, Germany’s Tesch Inkasso.

Bayer, the German life sciences company, has clinched an agreement with the board of Monsanto to buy the US company for an enterprise value of $66bn, to be financed with one of the largest rights issues in history.

Tobacco product manufacturer Swedish Match stepped into the euro corporate bond market on Wednesday to cut its financing costs.

Repricings are bubbling up across the levloan market as two firms, one Austrian and one US, launched repricing requests on Wednesday following SIG Combibloc's lead.