Europe

Aldi, the German discount supermarket chain, has signed a private club loan for around €600m with six banks. The deal is the company's first syndicated loan, according to bankers.

Public sector borrowers are putting the final touches to their funding programmes for the year amid stable market conditions, but there are few signs that any will pre-fund for 2016 in large size.

Santander UK was set to take home €1bn of five year operating co senior debt after a swift execution on Wednesday, with its slim new issue premium boding well for borrowers looking to grab funding before year end.

Danske Bank in Finland, formally known as Sampo Housing Loan Bank, has mandated leads for its first covered bond since September 2012. Meanwhile, La Caisse Centrale Desjardins du Quebec (CCDJ) has also mandated.

Financial institutions have begun a final push for funding as year-end approaches, with investors still looking to boost returns with higher beta purchases.

Royal Bank of Scotland has told bondholders it will buy back any and all of seven notes across sterling, dollars and euros, as the UK bank continues to retreat from certain businesses.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries “just scraped home” with very tight pricing on the $33.75bn loan it signed on Monday. Only around half the banks invited participated because margins were so tight, said a banker close to the deal.

The capital raisings of Greece’s four largest banks, totalling €6bn, continue to dominate the news in equity capital markets this week, though the IPO market is bringing its fair share of deals as well.

Pfandbriefbank, the Swiss mortgage lender, raised Sfr754m ($748m) in a four tranche bond on Tuesday, drawing a strong demand from insurance investors in the Swiss domestic market.

As the world's largest consumer of commodities, China is trying hard to make the RMB a bigger player in those markets. But while the long term strategy makes plenty of sense, its short term implementation faces a number of headwinds, despite the Hong Kong Exchange Group’s (HKEx) best intentions.

Novorossiysk Grain Products Plant, Russia’s largest grain export shipping terminal, has set the price range and opened the book for its IPO, in which it will join the first section of the Moscow Exchange.

A delayed agreement struck between Greece and its European partners on Tuesday looked set to reassure investors considering investing in the capital raises of Greece’s four largest banks.