Europe

Spain’s 10 year borrowing costs rose at an auction on Thursday to more than double their low for the year so far.

A resurgent Spanish corporate finance market is putting the expansion plans of Spain’s national champions to the test, at home and abroad, writes David Rothnie.

Talk of Russian issuers’ bond plans has been gathering pace this week as Gazprom has mandated for a bond to be printed before the end of this year, sanctioned VEB looks to 2016 for a Panda bond, and Norilsk Nickel embarks on a series of investor meetings.

Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) issued the third 10 year covered bond of the week on Thursday precisely matching Commerzbank in size and spread. With the European Central Bank expected to maintain an accommodative bias at this afternoon’s press conference and global deflationary forces back in play, duration could be back in vogue.

Lindorff, the Norwegian debt collection company, priced a €230m tap of its floating and fixed rate bonds on Thursday, reopening the European high yield market after the summer break in encouraging style.

Bankers are pointing to sovereigns from central Eastern Europe as the best hope for CEEMEA supply although much of the region is bound by the uncertainty of when the US will start to raise rates.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel opened the euro tier two market for a long list of names, as bankers sit on a pipeline that some say contains more than 20 transactions.

State Savings Bank of Ukraine (Oschadbank) has finished exchanging its 2016 and 2018 Eurobonds into new 2023 and 2025 notes.

Daiwa Capital Markets has hired a former head of sterling credit trading from Lloyds in a bid to increase the Japanese group’s presence in the currency.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is selling a Dkr2.5bn (€335m) block of shares in ISS, the Danish cleaning and facility services company, on Wednesday night, in the first accelerated bookbuild of European shares so far this week.

Portugal attracted more than €5.5bn of demand for the first syndicated deal from a peripheral sovereign since mid-June on Wednesday.

Ardian, the French investment firm formerly known as Axa Private Equity, has opened a new office in Madrid to reinforce its relationships with corporations and clients in Spain.