Europe

Simon Nixon, co-founder and one-time CEO of UK price comparison website MoneySupermarket.com, completed his exit from the firm on Wednesday night in the last of five block trades that together have brought him over £600m.

Three euro benchmarks surfaced on Wednesday including the first from Axa in four years, the first euro benchmark from BRFkredit and a dual tranche deal from Crédit Agricole which, by virtue of its €3.25bn size, is the most notable deal of the year so far. Despite these successes, traders fear the spread tightening run may be close to its end.

Barclays plc launched €1.5bn in five year senior debt on Wednesday, as it became the third UK issuer in the last two weeks to take strong investor demand for holding company level funding.

Commerzbank launched a €1bn 10 year tier two transaction first marketed in January on Wednesday, as investors continued to commit in large numbers to new subordinated bank debt offerings.

Dutch-registered oil company Sequa Petroleum on Wednesday announced plans to offer a new secured bond in the Nordic market, to finance its purchase of a 15% stake in Statoil’s Gina Krog field development.

Despite the limited supply in the SSA market this week, with issuers avoiding issuing close to this week’s US Federal Open Market Committee meeting and the approaching Easter holidays, there was still room for a clash of issuers on Monday as one borrower felt compelled to slam the anchors on its proposed benchmark.

Gazprom has set the spread on its first post-sanctions Swiss franc bond, a short dated note that is offering plenty of juice to yield starved private bank investors, according to bankers.

Credit Suisse launched a block trade in MoneySupermarket.com, the UK price comparison website, on Tuesday night. The trade is the fifth and last public block sale by Simon Nixon, the company's co-founder.

The €150m floating rate note issued on Tuesday by Parex Group, the French construction chemicals manufacturer, has single-B ratings. However, high yield market participants said they need to see more issues before being able to draw clear conclusions about pricing for single-B issuers.

Kommuninvest was able to price $600m of March 2019 paper at the tight end of initial price thoughts on Tuesday, making it the largest ever green bond from a Nordic issuer.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan fully exited its stake in ISS, the Danish cleaning firm, through a Dkr2.74bn ($408m) block trade on Monday night, which a lead banker said had attracted strong demand.

Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale found strong demand at the five year part of the dollar curve on Tuesday, as L-Bank delayed a deal in the same currency and tenor.