Europe

O2 Czech Republic has signed up to Ck12bn (€444m) of loans, of which it will use part to fund a share buyback programme.

UBS successfully completed a cash tender offer for Sfr6.1bn ($6.12bn) of its securities on Thursday, as the group looks to further strength its capital base.

Royal Bank of Scotland is moving forward with its plans to divest its Williams & Glyn branch network, but it is as yet unclear whether the sale will be done as an IPO or a straight sale.

The German Federal Government intends to raise €44bn in the capital markets in the first quarter of 2016, just over 28% of its total €154bn requirement.

Wind turbine company Nordex signed €1.4bn in loans on Tuesday. The five bookrunners flexed to accommodate a planned acquisition, in what was intended to be a plain refinancing.

Loans are the last bastion of European corporate finance activity, as the rest of the market falls to Federal Reserve trepidation. But the right message from the Fed could open the door for small, opportunistic trades.

Spain is expected to issue the third highest amount of covered bonds in 2016 but with redemptions considerably above that level, the country also faces the highest net negative issuance of any jurisdiction. With the economy set to grow at almost double the pace of Italy and Portugal, the credit and spread outlook will remain positive, unless there are any political surprises.

A director has left Crédit Agricole in the latest of a string of departures from the French bank’s hybrid capital and liability management team.

Novorossiysk Grain Plant finally listed and started trading on the Moscow Exchange on Tuesday, after having delayed closing the deal for three weeks.

With plenty of cash to deploy following a large number of redemptions, sterling investors piled into what looks likely to be KfW’s last sterling offering of the year on Tuesday.

Aroundtown Property Holdings, the German-focused property company, raised €300m on Tuesday, as it launched, upsized then closed a convertible bond in the last full week before Christmas.

Corporate borrowers in peripheral Europe have a golden opportunity to borrow thanks to the ECB’s targeted long term refinancing operation (TLTRO) help for banks – stalling the march towards bond and private placement predominance.