Germany

The Schuldschein market is finishing its busiest year ever with the foot on the gas, with more than 20 deals in the market at once. Investor demand is not expected to dip as a result of the scrum, but some deals may not see brimming levels of oversubscription, according to bankers.

Financial markets have changed their whole investment mindset in the past seven days, as lightly as an actor changing clothes. Out has gone lower-for-longer pessimism and slavery to central banks; in has come a belief in growth and enthusiasm for higher rates and inflation, writes Jon Hay.

Varta AG, the German micro-batteries manufacturer spun out of the historic Varta Group in 2002, has announced the price range for its Frankfurt IPO, aiming to raise €150m.

The German lender’s new strategy plays to its strengths but relies on its domestic clients shifting their financing into the capital markets, says David Rothnie.

Bayer successfully pulled off what was arguably this year’s biggest European ECM deal on Tuesday night, with a €4bn mandatory convertible and €1.5bn delta equity placement. But although both were fully sold and have traded stably, a good number of deal-playing investors are still putting in small orders.

Commerzbank returned to the covered bond market on Wednesday to issue its fourth deal of the year. Although order book granularity was less than usual, the €500m long six year was priced tightly and the quality of interest was high.

Bayer, the German life sciences group, picked Tuesday night to launch the first part of its $19bn equity financing for its $66bn takeover of Monsanto. Bayer's deal comes as equity markets are revitalised by the new conviction that Western policy is shifting to reflation.

The deal the equity-linked bond market has been awaiting for months has arrived this evening. Bayer, the German life sciences group, has launched a €4bn mandatorily convertible issue as the first part of its $19bn equity financing for its takeover of Monsanto.

The bounce in international equities since the election of Donald Trump as US president was widely expected by market participants to lead to a round of block trades as sellers looked to take advantage of the favourable conditions.

German healthcare group Fresenius launched a €400m Schuldschein on Friday and had already received commitments in excess of the launch size by Monday afternoon, as investors lapped up the favoured credit.

Siemens, the German engineering group, is planning to move ahead with a public listing of its healthcare business, it said as it released its fourth quarter earnings on Thursday morning.

The German Pfandbrief issuer ING-DiBa quickly executed a €500m 10 year mortgage backed deal on Tuesday, hours before US election headlines hit the screens, even though it had not been in the market since 2012.