Goldman Sachs

With the year not two months old, seven leading equity capital markets banks have got saddled with what is understood to be at least €50m each of Saipem shares, after the rump of its rights issue failed to sell.

A plunge in sterling’s value on Monday after the UK government picked a date for the country’s European Union membership is unlikely to stop SSAs adding to a record breaking year in the currency so far, said bankers.

DNB Bank priced its first public euro senior unsecured bond for more than four years on Friday, and became the latest bank to take as much as possible from its order book as conditions remain uncertain.

Apple's $12bn nine-tranche bond this week has not only kick-started a US corporate bond market that had been drained by weeks of volatility, but also signalled the beginning of a wave of supply from US issuers that is expected to hit European shores.

Insurance claims processor Solera Holdings has just three more days of roadshowing to persuade investors to get involved in its $4bn bond and leveraged loan financing, with the jury out on whether a strong week of meetings in the US can trump the torrid time the company had when courting investors in Europe, write Max Bower and Victor Jimenez.

A healthy pair of benchmarks this week and strong conditions mean the euro market is wide open for a pair of supranationals to bring planned deals next week.

Two FIG issuers this week took advantage of good conditions to tap the Swiss franc market, revealing an opportunity for other banks to escape widened euro and dollar spreads.

High yield bankers insist that the European market will not be paralysed by some of the banks holding debt they have been unable to sell, even after the failure of last week's €1.55bn financing for LeasePlan.

Goldman Sachs printed its largest ever deal in Swiss francs on Wednesday, revealing an opportunity for other banks escaping widened euro and dollar spreads.

As Solera Holdings began on Tuesday in New York the last leg of its $2bn bond roadshow, investors in the US voiced their surprise at how negative some of its European counterparts remain about the success of the deal.

Nordic Investment Bank is preparing a three year dollar benchmark, following a KfW five year deal that had to brave a backdrop of negative swap spreads.

SSA issuers have come through a battering time in markets to print euro deals, with Austria hitting the long end of the curve and BNG also printing. But the scars are showing as KfW is demonstrating in the dollar market.