Germany

As the final deals of 2017 are closed in the Schuldschein market, bankers are already busy working on an expected January rush.

Vonovia, the German housing company, is likely to issue debt next year, to finance its €5.2bn cash offer for Austrian peer Buwog, announced on Monday morning.

Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Magdeburg, a German housing company owned by the city of Magdeburg, has issued a Schuldschein with tenors above the usual maximum threshold of 10 years.

Futures based on cryptocurrency bitcoin exploded onto US exchanges this week, with traders looking to expose themselves to the asset's incredible volatility and authorities sounding warnings.

Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has taken capital markets by storm, may be coming to European derivatives exchange Eurex, according to a spokesperson.

Vossloh, the German rail technology company, has signed a €150m revolving credit facility with a club of eight banks to refinance a loan signed in 2015.

Eurex, the Deutsche Boerse-owned derivatives exchange, had technical issues on Wednesday morning, with users unable to start trading products at their normal 8am start.

KfW has a slightly smaller funding target next year than for 2017, it said on Monday, as it looked to capitalise on investors’ desire for large, liquid bonds.

Volkswagen Bank GmbH sold sold its first bond for more than three years this week. The banking services subsidiary of German car manufacturer Volkswagen printed a €2bn triple-tranche deal on Wednesday.

The City of Vienna’s long-dated loans are three times subscribed three weeks into the marketing process. As investor appetite grows for longer-dated maturities, corporates are beginning to find luck with the product.

The Austrian subsidiary of Steinhoff issued roughly €650m of Schuldscheine in July 2015 — and, as its shares plunged on Wednesday, over 100 Schuldschein lenders were stuck with little ability to sell the debt. With no majority voting allowed in the Schuldschein market, some question whether the product's lean documentation can cope in headier times.

Repricings and refinancings have dominated this year’s leveraged loan issuance. This week, Apcoa added one more such deal. But investors proved they can still discriminate, as House of HR had to sweeten the terms of its new refinancing loan.