Europe

R&R Ice Cream is scheduled to launch €1bn of loans this month as its joint venture with Nestlé’s ice cream business, Froneri, nears completion.

Natixis Pfandbriefbank (NPB) has mandated joint leads for its first publicly distributed Pfandbrief, which will be launched on Wednesday.

German health care group Fresenius is set to unroll more than €5bn of debt to fund its acquisition of Quirónsalud, a Spanish peer, which it will integrate into its Helios hospital network.

Prudential opened books on a dollar Reg S tier two bond on Tuesday, as European and institutional investors begin to show more interest in fixed-for-life bonds.

Dutch nuts and bolts supplier Fabory has signed a €130m loan with three banks, two of which had not previously participated in syndicated lending to the company.

Commerzbank gave investors a rare taste of operating company level senior debt on Tuesday, as banks get in ahead of potential macro and political risks.

Talk of the European Central Bank extending its bond buying programme to banks sent the iTraxx Europe Senior Financials credit default swap basket back within 20bp of the Main index on Monday and to its tightest levels since the UK referendum vote on EU membership at the end of June.

Demand for the €500m bond from Swedish property owner Hemso Fastighets on Tuesday confirmed Nordic momentum in the corporate market.

British American Tobacco issued the first corporate sterling bond of the autumn on Monday as it reached for tenor, tapping the market for a 36 year deal.

A dire year for hybrid issuance received some cheer on Monday as German utilities company ENBW mandated three banks for a transaction in the asset class, the European market’s third such deal this year.

Investors’ concerns about the performance of the shipping industry have hit bonds of the French group CMA CGM in an otherwise stable high yield secondary market.

Two European real estate investment companies have wrapped up loans in the last week, though borrowing by the sector is lagging behind bumper 2015 volumes.