Germany

The European Investment Bank blew the doors off the sterling market with a record breaking deal on Tuesday, and two other issuers quickly followed.

German arms maker Heckler & Koch was downgraded to D by Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday, after a partial bond redemption considered as a ‘distressed exchange’.

Asklepios, Europe’s largest privately owned hospital operator, has signed a €365m revolving credit facility for general corporate and refinancing purposes.

Rentenbank and Bank Netherlands Gemeenten have revealed their funding plans for 2016.

Another foreign issuer has joined the German Schuldschein market, as Sweden's Saab signs its first ever deal. It was arranged by two non-German banks.

German offshore wind operator Wind MW has closed a green project bond that will refinance debt backing its construction of an offshore wind farm.

The covered bond market is likely to see more supply in 2016 than it did in 2015 even as the European Central Bank reduces covered bond purchases in favour of other asset classes, said analysts this week.

SSA issuers are readying themselves for a busy 2016 after the Fed eased the markets into a higher rates environment on Thursday.

A US public sector borrower will bring a large green bond which will startle the US market, according to one market expert, as green bonds gain further importance after COP 21.

The German Federal Government intends to raise €44bn in the capital markets in the first quarter of 2016, just over 28% of its total €154bn requirement.

Wind turbine company Nordex signed €1.4bn in loans on Tuesday. The five bookrunners flexed to accommodate a planned acquisition, in what was intended to be a plain refinancing.

With plenty of cash to deploy following a large number of redemptions, sterling investors piled into what looks likely to be KfW’s last sterling offering of the year on Tuesday.