Europe

National Australia Bank (NAB) has priced a seven year Swiss franc note on Tuesday, making it the first international issuer in the currency for 2016.

Just as European equity capital sales made a prompt start to the year today with the €1bn NN Group block trade, the equity-linked market has also wasted no time. Safran, the French aerospace and defence company, issued a €650m convertible at what a banker claimed was a record low yield.

ISDA’s Determinations Committee will meet at 12pm London time on Wednesday to decide whether Portugal’s Novo Banco has triggered a government intervention credit event, but will also deliberate a succession event in relation to the transfer of senior bonds to Banco Espirito Santo.

If Monday was an ugly beginning to 2016 in the equity capital market, with a 7% fall in Chinese stocks dragging world indices down, Tuesday has been much cheerier, even bringing deals in Europe.

The principle of pari-passu among bondholders lays dead and buried. The Bank of Portugal’s decision to select only five of Novo Banco’s 52 senior bonds for bail-in last week has established a new precedent for bank resolutions, and what a fine mess it has created.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association this week published an initial list of 35 bonds to be considered as deliverables in the forthcoming Abengoa credit event auction, which will settle 2014 credit default swaps, but not updated 2003 transactions.

BGC Brokers, the interdealer broker, is making a push into the competitive world of over-the-counter derivatives portfolio compression and has already taken out over €800bn notional of swaptions.

Last year’s difficult dollar conditions looked firmly in the past on Tuesday as a pair of issuers tapped different parts of the curve for big deals — and other issuers readied themselves for trades.

Daimler opened this year's European investment grade corporate bond issuance on Tuesday, selling a barn-storming €3.25bn triple tranche deal that pulled in a €7bn order book.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten started January with a bang, roaring out of the blocks with an oversubscribed book on the year’s first euro deal, and printing its largest ever 10 year benchmark in the currency.

The European Investment Bank blew the doors off the sterling market with a record breaking deal on Tuesday, and two other issuers quickly followed.

Norwegian shipping company Havila has conducted a restructuring of its debt after operating cashflows dwindled in the second half of 2015.