Germany

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia has launched its first ever 50 year benchmark, coming to market just as Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten landed at the short end.

HSH Nordbank has mandated joint leads for a €500m five year mortgage backed Pfandbrief. Investors should benefit from a potential rating upgrade.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia is set to bring its longest ever euro benchmark, as public sector borrowers line up trades across the currency’s curve.

Deutsche Bahn sold 10 year Swiss franc bonds on Tuesday at a price roughly in line with its euro funding levels.

Crédit Agricole and Münchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) found good demand for their covered bonds on Tuesday, but it was Crédit Agricole’s transaction that really stood out by virtue of its size and maturity, which until now had been viewed with trepidation.

Société Générale on Tuesday announced that it had agreed to buy Commerzbank’s equity markets and commodities business (EMC), including market-making flow and products trading as well as exchange-traded fund (ETF) subsidiary ComStage.

HSBC has hired Nicolo Salsano, the former chief investment officer, Europe, for Anbang Group, as head of corporate and institutional banking for Germany, filling the gap left by Norbert Reis.

Consus Real Estate, the German property development company, has fixed the terms for a €287m capital increase that it announced last month to finance its pipeline projects.

Issuance of US private placement debt has fallen by up to a quarter year on year, according to US PP market participants. The fault lies in the US — as opposed to Australia and Europe — as the cost of debt begins to rise for issuers alongside US rate rises.

EA Partners II, the structured high yield bonds backed by loans to several airlines which are partners of Etihad, announced a note event of default on Friday, thanks to the low bids it received for loans to Air Berlin and Alitalia, both of which collapsed last year.

Berlin Hyp (BHH) was on Monday set to issue its largest covered bond in four years, and with the shortest tenor of any European deal so far this year.

Barclays is working hard to expand its equity capital markets business in Northern Europe, in a bid to capitalise on what it expects to be a busy few years for the region.