Germany

Steinhoff completed syndication of $4bn of acquisition loans this week with the deal going “better than expected", according to bankers. The loan market has not shown signs of fatigue for the South African-based furniture retailer, even though the borrower has already asked a lot of the market this year.

The German lender has appointed leads to market its first senior unsecured green deal from next week.

German pharmaceutical company Cheplapharm Greifswald is in the market for a €95m Schuldschein which the family-owned firm will not grow beyond the launch size.

The dollar market is set to remain the “darling” — in the words of one syndicate banker — currency in the coming weeks, after a trio of strong deals on Wednesday.

German chemical company Evonik hit the reopened European investment grade corporate bond market at pace on Tuesday, as it sought financing for its €3.5bn acquisition of US industrial gas provider Air Products’ speciality and coating additives business.

A trio of issuers on Tuesday mandated for dollar deals across the shorter end of the curve, as underlying US Treasury yields stayed slightly elevated after last Friday’s meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole.

ANZ New Zealand and Natixis Pfandbriefbank have mandated leads to roadshow euro denominated covered bonds.

A surfeit of supply hit the long end of the covered bond curve this week as issuers piled in to take advantage of extraordinarily cheap funding conditions that are unlikely to last long. Bill Thornhill reports.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Börse have submitted their merger plans to European competition regulators, in the hopes of wrapping up the deal in the first half of 2017.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia sold on Thursday the longest dated benchmark ever from a German state, in a move which may encourage other Laender to follow suit.

The gap to repay a €2.7bn bridge facility that supports HeidelbergCement's purchase of Italcementi is set to close once the former cashes in the sale of its West Virginia factory.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten has tapped a June 2024 line, managing to print €400m despite offering a negative yield. Land NRW will sidestep the negative yield problem on Thursday by moving out the curve.