Germany

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday brought the first 20 year euro benchmark of the year from a core eurozone issuer, for which leads said the “stars aligned”. A sell-off in rates, core SSAs stability in the face of wider market volatility and a healthy spread over OATs all helped the deal, they said.

German car rental and leasing company Sixt sold just the second corporate bond issue of the week when it copied the format of its four previous deals, which the company has sold at two year intervals.

The euro private placement market is seeing volumes rise to the highs reached in 2013-2015 as corporates push ahead with funding in the hope of beating European Central Bank interest rate rises expected later this year.

Investor expectations for the number of US Federal Reserve target rate rises this year grew on Wednesday after inflation figures for the country came in higher than most analysts’ expectations. The shift came on the same day that Rentenbank doubled its minimum size on a dollar syndication.

Deutsche Bank avoided senior unsecured and subordinated bond markets, where its paper has widened considerably, to raise €500m of seven year covered bond funding on Wednesday. The bank paid virtually no new issue premium.

Sources have said 3i plans to follow a buy-and-build approach with the newly acquired Royal Sanders, the Anglo-Dutch personal care product manufacturer. The strategy would mirror its successful expansion of drinks bottling company Refresco, which sparked a bounty of deals in the high yield and leveraged loan markets.

Wabco Europe BVBA, an industrial equipment supplier with headquarters in Brussels, has launched a €200m inaugural Schuldschein. The deal is guaranteed by Wabco Holdings, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Frankfurt IPO of German real estate developer Instone finished on a strong note on Wednesday, despite the company having to bookbuild during an extraordinarily volatile week for equity markets.

LBBW has promoted Thomas Meißner to be its new head of strategy. Alexandra Schadow takes over from Meißner as head of cross-asset research.

Another equity block trade in Delivery Hero, the German online food ordering marketplace, flew out of the door on Thursday night after the company had reported its 2017 earnings earlier in the week.

Mainland consumer electronics giant Qingdao Haier is considering launching a flotation of Chinese D-shares on the Frankfurt-based China Europe International Exchange (Ceinex).

Real estate investment trust (Reit) issuance is rising in private debt markets, as spreads compress and borrowers look to lock in long term debt before expected interest rate rises.