Germany

On Tuesday, two German property-related corporate bond issuers achieved successful funding for their M&A activity by marketing their deals with no-grow approaches. Both companies priced €500m of bonds.

Meyer Turku, the Finnish shipbuilder, has launched a debut Schuldschein deal, as the instrument grows in popularity in Northern Europe.

More companies are planning to follow Qingdao Haier’s lead as it prepares to sell the first batch of D-shares, a new asset class for Chinese stocks listed in Germany, a spokesperson at the China Europe International Exchange (Ceinex) told GlobalCapital Asis's sister publication GlobalRMB.

American agricultural equipment firm AGCO has launched a Schuldschein transaction, following in the footsteps of Sherwin Williams and Wabco.

France is set to revisit the SRI market, announcing a syndicated tap of its June 2039 Green OAT, or GrOAT. The deal will follow a German agency's annual green bond.

Euro private placement lenders are limbering up for a fight over the right to refinance the first generation of Euro PP deals, many of which are maturing this year. The market began in earnest in 2012, and many of the deals had six year tenors.

It was the deal the corporate bond market had been waiting for. German pharmaceuticals company Bayer had flagged a €22bn bond equivalent bond deal to finance its acquisition of Monsanto. The deal was executed efficiently in the dollar and euro markets, but what wasn’t expected was the wave of confidence that washed over the rest of the European corporate bond market as a result.

Volkswagen used the slipstream of the upbeat corporate bond market this week to print the largest corporate hybrid bond deal of the year to date. The dual tranche offering garnered €8bn of demand.

Deutsche Hypo this week priced an eight year Pfandbrief at the widest level of any benchmark sized German covered bond this year, suggesting investor sensitivity is particularly pronounced in this part of the curve when the spread to mid-swaps is negative.

KfW has hired a new head of government relations with a strong background in climate change and energy issues.

Bayer, the German pharmaceuticals giant, has completed its jumbo €6bn rights issue with 98.3% of shareholders taking up their rights.

Bayer’s €5bn four-tranche corporate bond offering on Tuesday not only cleared the way for other issuers to approach the market, but the €22.5bn of demand gave four issuers the confidence to sell a variety of deals in Europe on Wednesday. €3.5bn was issued in the euro market and £1bn in sterling.