Germany

Siemens, the German engineering group, and Fortum, the Finnish electricity company, hit the corporate bond market on Tuesday with big, multi-tranche euro deals totalling €5.5bn. Both achieved great terms at long tenors in an otherwise quiet market.

KfW returned to the euro market with a one day tap, joining France and Cyprus in the market and extending the its stellar run of new issues in euros.

Germany’s ElringKlinger has signed a €350m loan. The automotive supply company has swapped bilateral lines for syndicated lending as it looks to shore up its capital structure amid widespread upheaval in Europe’s vehicle industry.

Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman’s bid for German listings and classified ad group Scout24 is likely to disappoint the leveraged finance market in Europe, which is keen to see some jumbo event-driven supply. The firms are targeting a takeover of the group, but not as a full take-private structure — and with a large equity cheque cutting the likely debt volume on offer, as well as the leverage and price.

ThyssenKrupp, the German steel and engineering company, has raised €1.5bn in the corporate bond market, despite downward pressure on its credit ratings as it prepares to spin off its capital goods business later this year.

Telefonica Deutschland has launched a Schuldschein with wider pricing to reflect broader investor appetite, sources claim.

The UK’s future may be impossible to fathom as the beyond-satirical story of Brexit drags on, but public sector borrowers printing in the country’s currency can be certain that this will be a year of tumbling records, with volumes soaring and average sizes rocketing. While strong technical factors are behind much of the demand, some SSA bankers say that a willingness by issuers to treat execution in the currency like that in euros and dollars has bolstered sterling’s standing.

KfW made a strong return to the Canadian dollar market on Thursday after 3.5 years away from the currency, as it tightened pricing on its comeback deal. The German agency came alongside a green bond in the currency from a Canadian province.

Deutsche Bank has pulled about $5.25bn equivalent of non-preferred senior funding out of the market in the past two weeks, stomaching higher funding costs than some of its peers. The bank’s treasurer told GlobalCapital this week that it was prudent to step into the market now, with the issuer having cut through half of its target for loss-absorbing debt issuance in 2019.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

KfW and Québec will bring Canadian dollar bonds to the market on Thursday, with the former looking to issue in the currency for the first time since 2015.

German car leasing company Sixt has launched a Schuldschein with an initial size of €200m, according to two Schuldschein market participants.