Germany

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.

Aroundtown Property Holdings, the German-focused property company, raised €300m on Tuesday, as it launched, upsized then closed a convertible bond in the last full week before Christmas.

Germany is expected to lead the way in covered bond supply in 2016, with research analysts estimates’ ranging between €23bn and €30bn. Growth in mortgage lending, high redemptions and a weak private placement market are the main drivers of growth. And, in the event the European Central Bank scales back covered bond purchases, Pfandbrief spreads should be the most stable.

Vonovia

Any bankers who had written off December for corporate bond issuance were forced to eat their words on Wednesday, when Vonovia, the German housing company, issued a €3bn deal to finance its hostile takeover bid for Deutsche Wohnen, and won a book of over €7bn.

UniCredit’s German subsidiary HypoVereinsbank (HVB) priced a well oversubscribed four year mortgage covered bond this week in the wake of CIBC's strong reception in the three year tenor.

Nasdaq Commodities this week introduced a German Wind Index Futures contract, with EDF Trading and Energi Danmark executing the first trade.

Daimler has tapped the sterling bond market for a £250m six year trade, the latest in a steady line of names from the auto sector to do so in a maturity below the market's preference.

Any bankers who had written off December for corporate bond issuance were forced to eat their words today, when Vonovia, the German housing company, issued a €3bn deal to finance its hostile takeover bid for Deutsche Wohnen, and won a book of over €7bn.

KfW will add sustainability ratings to its criteria when selecting lead managers for its green bonds, the agency announced when releasing its funding plans for 2016.