Europe

Mercuria, the Swiss energy and commodity trader, is set to launch its annual European refinancing loan next week, according to a banker familiar with the deal.

BBVA has launched the first euro denominated AT1 bond since February’s sell-off, pricing the bond through its outstanding notes' yield to call, and fueling hopes the primary market is fully open once more.

Crédit Agricole was in the senior unsecured market on Thursday, drawing strong demand at the long end of the curve as syndicates remained cautious to ensure a smooth allocation process.

Deutsche Bank made its second visit to the senior unsecured market within a month on Thursday, offering investors an eye catching price for a two year floating rate deal.

Miles Tadman, former distressed debt analyst at Deutsche Bank and Barclays, has joined investment banking firm SC Lowy in London.

Eni issued a €400m convertible bond on Wednesday that had to be reduced in size and repriced at worse terms for the issuer. The deal was an important test of whether there is still vigour in the spate of equity-neutral convertible bonds following the European Central Bank's unleashing of quantitative easing on the corporate bond market on March 10.

The short end of the dollar curve is enjoying a purple patch, with public sector borrowers drawing big books and pricing with much lower new issue premiums than earlier in the year.

Portugal breathed some liquidity into a pair of outstanding bonds on Wednesday with its first syndication since January, achieving much lower premiums than its last syndication, according to bankers.

Two UK borrowers, Kier Group and Laird, are marketing their first ever Schuldscheine, as UK borrowers return to the market after a long break.

Galloper Wind Farm is syndicating £1.1bn of loans to a second group of banks, a banker familiar with the deal said this week.

The Basel Committee has made an adjustment to the way it wants leverage ratios to be calculated, in a change that will lessen the capital burden on many banks that deal in derivatives.

ING paid a small to premium to shield itself from TLAC/MREL uncertainty on Wednesday, issuing an opco tier two bond with a new feature allowing the bank to convert the notes to holdco debt.