Germany

Aroundtown Property Holdings, the German residential property company, nipped in before year end to make an opportunistic grab for €500m from the European corporate bond market on Tuesday.

Volume figures released by major derivative exchanges for November show a marked rise over October's numbers, with some exchanges reporting record volume days in the aftermath of the US election.

There is too much diversity in covered bond legal and supervisory frameworks to justify special regulatory treatment of all regimes and programmes, said Christian Moor, a policy advisor with the European Banking Authority, at the Afme and VDP covered bond conference in Berlin.

Schustermann & Borenstein, the German fashion retailer, priced a €260m bond on Thursday to fund its acquisition by private equity firm Permira.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

A pair of public sector borrowers hit screens this week for dollar syndications, providing an unexpectedly strong climax to 2016.

Rating: BBB+/BBB+

German brake systems manufacturer Knorr Bremse has returned to the euro bond market nearly 14 years after it last sold a new issue to investors.

Uniper, the German power and gas company on Wednesday issued its first public bond since spinning off from E.ON earlier this year, tapping the short end of the curve with a two year offering.

Rentenbank sold what is likely to be its final benchmark of the year on Tuesday.

Varta AG, the German maker of micro-batteries for hearing aids and wireless headphones, has withdrawn its Frankfurt IPO that was due to be priced on Tuesday, blaming the “current unfavourable market environment”.

Lanxess, the German chemicals company, issued a €500m hybrid capital bond on Tuesday as it sought financing for its acquisition of Chemtura.