Europe

Traders this week reversed the recently growing dispersion among some of Europe’s widest iTraxx Crossover credits, with Abengoa rallying sharply as three banks backed the company’s rights issue. But the reprieve was brief and against the tide, say some participants.

The UK’s gargantuan £4.2bn infrastructure project, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, will delight institutional investors and bankers alike with as much as £2.8bn of rare inflation-linked bond issuance. Elly Whittaker reports.

Sanne, the corporate administration provider, spent £7m on transaction costs for its initial public offering in March, the firm said in its half year results.

Was it all a dream? At the start of the week the markets were in the throes of a full-blown panic, with talk of “Black Monday” and plentiful comparisons with the Lehman collapse. Yet barely three days later, the iTraxx Europe was back trading at 70.5bp, exactly the same level it was quoted at a week ago.

Since March 2009 Britain’s benchmark official rate has been 0.5% — the lowest rate in the Bank of England’s 320 year history, its long term average being about 4.5%. But recently BoE's governor Mark Carney speculated that it will begin to rise from the end of the year to around 2%, possibly heralding the end of the era of cheap money.

Ukraine debt has rocketed in value on the understanding that the country's Ministry of Finance has reached an agreement with its ad hoc creditor committee, settling on a 20% haircut on $18bn of debt.

After a month-long drought in the euro covered bond market, a minimum of three deals could be priced this week after Crédit Agricole leapt on improved conditions to reopen the market on Thursday.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel has burst back into the market shortly after a summer blackout, raising €600m with a spree of floating rate medium term notes.

Swiss-based commodities firm ECOM Agroindustrial, which specialises in supplying coffee, cotton and cocoa, has mandated banks to arrange its $450m one year refinancing.

The Kingdom of Belgium has more than doubled its outstanding maturity curve with a 100 year medium term note, and it’s keen to issue more ultra-long debt.

The German State of North-Rhine Westphalia is planning its next green bond to be bigger and potentially longer than a debut earlier this year.

The Schuldschein for German healthcare group, Asklepios has been increased from €250m to around €600m after oversubscription from investors, according to a banker on the deal.