Germany

Intercontinental Exchange’s assertion this week that it is mulling an offer for the London Stock Exchange Group, along with rumours of rival interest from CME, has ushered in a ‘phoney war’ with main suitor Deutsche Börse, say market participants — but the ensuing battle makes the future of LSE’s clearing business far from certain.

KfW

Investment fund Aurelius attempted to sell its entire 51% stake in German beverage group Berentzen Gruppe on Tuesday, but eventually cut the offering by more than half when it realised it would not get the price it hoped for.

Porsche AG has grown its Schuldschein from the launch size of €200m to €1.1bn, in another big deal for the private debt market.

The smallest of Wednesday’s three corporate bond issues in Europe was Grenkeleasing’s €125m 5.1 year bond, led by BayernLB, Commerzbank and DZ Bank.

Danske issued in a larger size and attracted more orders for its covered bond than Deutsche Bank did for its deal. The outcome was surprising given Deutsche’s rarity and higher quality collateral. But in any case the German issuer did well given that it could have done the deal without any support from the Eurosystem.

The covered bond primary market began slowly this week with just one quickly syndicated €500m German benchmark from Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank (Dapo) emerging. Despite its measly coupon the deal offered a hefty pick up to Germany. Covered bond supply is expected to improve in the week ahead.

Torsten Elling will not be returning to Barclays, having been on paternity leave since June last year, GlobalCapital understands.

A record breaking start to the year for SSA issuance in sterling kept pace this week, as the bond market showed little sign of contagion from a drop in the currency to a seven year low versus the dollar — and indeed may even have received a boost from the devalued currency.

This week the Schuldschein market completed what could be its second largest deal ever, for Aldi subsidiary Hofer, and also launched its first two green deals — in what looks like another impressive year for the market.

A merger between London Stock Exchange Group and Deutsche Börse could bring huge cost savings and margin benefits — but would concentrate clearing house risk, running directly against the regulatory desire to end "too big to fail".

Senvion, the German wind turbine maker, has become the first of this year’s second wave of IPO candidates, announcing on Monday this week its intention to float in Frankfurt.