Germany

The euro market for public sector borrowers repoened on Tuesday as a pair of issuers took advantage of calmer conditions since the US election on November 8 to raise nearly €2bn in total — both paying small new issue premiums.

KfW was able to increase from its original size target and tighten pricing on Tuesday with the first public sector dollar bond of over $1bn since the election of Donald Trump as US president.

FMO is set to raise a minimum of Skr500m ($54.25m) with a seven year sustainability bond on Tuesday, while KfW plans to bring a dollar green bond.

GlobalRMB has launched a new Monday round-up, featuring key market and regulatory developments from the weekend. This edition includes: mixed RMB FX performance, unexpected delay to the Shenzhen Connect, and Luxembourg looking to join the Belt and Road Initiative.

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.