Europe

Hellman & Friedman is acquiring a majority stake in the Swedish company Securitas Direct with a €2.7bn financing package involving bonds and loans.

Norilsk Nickel opened books on a seven year benchmark bond on Tuesday morning, which should help answer a key question on the minds of bankers and prospective borrowers — just what do Russian corporates have to pay to come to market?

Vitol, the Switzerland-headquartered oil trader, has signed its annual loan refinancing, increasing the loans from $7.5bn to $8bn.

A credit event auction on Tuesday for swaps referencing the Republic of Ukraine will be the fastest that has ever been put together in the history of the derivatives contract, lawyers have said.

Dutch trust and corporate services business Intertrust said on Monday that it would raise about €465m from its initial public offering to repay existing debt.

French investment company Wendel bought a €300m no-grow trade to an uncertain, but increasingly stable corporate bond market on Monday.

The higher level of new issue premium SSAs have to pay in dollars is set to be showcased this week, after a pair of European borrowers hit screens on Monday with benchmarks in the currency.

Plans by the European Central Bank to trial the use of reverse auctions in its public sector purchase programme have been tentatively welcomed by SSA issuers on the central bank’s buying list.

A eurozone periphery sovereign is set to meet investors before a possible euro syndication, as a pair of countries from the region unveiled their funding plans for the rest of the year.

HSBC has announced Mehmet Emin Mazi will be taking over the role of global head of traded credit.

The Bank of Cyprus has got one step closer to issuing its first covered bond benchmark since being recapitalised. The conditional pass through programme got an investment grade rating from Moody’s, which for the first time took a fully de-linked approach.

The UK government is set to sell a chunk of at least £2bn of Lloyds Bank shares to retail investors as it pursues its plan to fully exit from its shareholding in the bank.