Europe

French car parts maker Faurecia has gone against the headwinds buffeting the industry, cutting financing costs with its latest refinancing round. A number of other well known high yield borrowers are also rushing into the market before Christmas to switch their higher coupon paper into cheaper alternatives.

Temasek, the Singapore government investment arm, launched 12 and 30 year euro bonds on Wednesday, a day after announcing its mandate.

Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) mandated leads for a Sonia-linked covered bond on Wednesday, taking advantage of the excess demand that was identified in an earlier deal from Santander UK.

Redbridge Council raised £75m through a deferred bond this week. A banker close to the deal said other local authorities would be following close behind.

Demand for ground-breaking covered bonds issued on Wednesday by Deutsche Bank and Danish Ships Finance was adequate but both required hefty premiums — illustrating a higher degree of investor caution than had been expected.

For the second time, the European Investment Bank has suggested concessions on its new Energy Lending Policy that would weaken its commitment to stop fossil fuel financing by the end of 2020, and its claim to becoming Europe's 'climate bank'.

La Banque Postale shied away from hitting the bottom end of the guidance pricing range for its debut additional tier one (AT1) on Wednesday, after losing about half of its order book during the sales process.

Lloyds Banking Group marketed an additional tier one in the sterling market this week, making use of favourable conditions. The lender was “quite an attractive credit” in an undersupplied market, according to analysts.

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust is selling US private placements, some 18 months since its last outing in the market.

Emerging markets issuers are pumping out mandates, with the buy-side showing little sign yet of closing shop for the year, but investors are not throwing cash at everything.

All maturities are open for deals in the euro market, thanks to a widening in benchmark spreads over the past few weeks. SSA issuers are taking advantage of the conditions by issuing in a range of tenors.

Investors have embraced the bonds of smaller European financial institutions this year, as they search for higher returns in an environment where interest rates are expected to remain low for a long time.