Europe

Following approval of its demerger plan, Nordea has managed to get the consent of bondholders to transfer the assets and liabilities affecting 31 of its Finnish covered bonds to a new entity with a new guarantee. However, it does not yet have investors’ consent on six remaining deals.

EAA Covered Bond Bank Plc (EAACBB), an Irish covered bond issuer and subsidiary of Erste Abwicklungsanstalt, which was formally a part of WestLB Ireland, has been given the authority to proceed with its sale.

BNP Paribas took advantage of a lull in issuance this week to launch a dollar additional tier one transaction, following in the footsteps of UBS, which reopened the market with a blowout last Monday.

Banco Popolare Sondrio returned to the covered bond market for its second ever deal on Wednesday. The substantially oversubscribed transaction was priced close to fair value reflecting a concern that peripheral supply could dry up.

Poland is considering a Panda bond issue, and is hoping to meet investors in China in the second quarter of this year for the deal, according to a source in Poland’s Ministry of Finance.

Russian mining firm Metalloinvest has closed a $400m pre-export finance facility (PXF), with two banks coordinating. But the bank list and pricing have not been disclosed, leaving uncertainty over the wider lending appetite for the deal and sector.

Russia is making preparations to sell an offshore renminbi bond, its debut in the currency and the government’s first international bond since 2013. But with sanctions still in place and renminbi liquidity limited in Russia, the sovereign is planning to ask China to relax one of its outbound investment schemes so that mainland investors can buy the deal.

One of Abengoa's subsidiaries has signed a liquidity facility with a group of investment funds.

Zodiac Aerospace, the French aeroplane seat maker, has sold a seven year Euro private placement to refinance an older Euro PP and the first instalment of a Schuldschein, both issued in 2013.

Asia's debt market was crowded on Wednesday with three issuers on the hunt for their respective fundraisings ahead of the Easter holiday.

The head of equity-linked bonds at Bank of America Merrill Lynch has resigned from the firm.

Humana AB, the Swedish company that provides care for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill, traded up 19% on its Stockholm debut on Tuesday, but fell back on Wednesday.