Europe

The equity-linked market in Europe has been quiet since Total SA’s $1.2bn deal on November 25, but on Wednesday a very different deal was executed successfully by Basilea Pharmaceutica, a small and still unprofitable Swiss drug company.

Xior Student Housing, the newly launched Belgian property company, has completed its IPO, raising €87.8m, with a multiple times oversubscribed book. The money will be used to buy an initial property portfolio worth €196m, through a set of acquisitions.

The movement of one word – 10 places to the left – in ISDA’s credit derivative definitions was the determining factor in the trade body deciding that Abengoa had not triggered a bankruptcy credit event for most of its credit default swaps.

Repsol, the Spanish oil producer, issued a €600m five year 2.125% bond today, in a torrid week for commodity markets, to finance a buyback of some Talisman Energy bonds.

Daimler has tapped the sterling bond market for a £250m six year trade, the latest in a steady line of names from the auto sector to do so in a maturity below the market's preference.

Any bankers who had written off December for corporate bond issuance were forced to eat their words today, when Vonovia, the German housing company, issued a €3bn deal to finance its hostile takeover bid for Deutsche Wohnen, and won a book of over €7bn.

KfW will add sustainability ratings to its criteria when selecting lead managers for its green bonds, the agency announced when releasing its funding plans for 2016.

Deutsche Bank will not be a primary dealer for Belgium in 2016, after the country’s minister of finance, Johan Van Overtveldt did not reappoint the German bank in its updated list for 2016.

Royal Bank of Scotland has placed its head of covered bond origination at risk of redundancy.

Tim Skeet, head of covered bond origination, has been put at risk of redundancy at Royal Bank of Scotland.

UK construction company Balfour Beatty has nearly halved the size of its revolving credit facility in a £400m refinancing deal.

Intesa attracted a well oversubscribed book for its €1.25bn 10 year covered bond issued on Wednesday. The transaction did not initially seem to be an obvious trade to do, but the 1.5% yield along with its status as a national champion evidently gave a broad range of investors exactly the right incentives to take part.