Greece

Greece was able to exchange more than €25bn of old bonds for new assets in an exercise designed to normalise the borrower’s curve. The offer ended on Tuesday, in the midst of discussions about the conditions that will be attached to Greece’s next tranche of emergency loans.

A €30bn debt exchange by Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency began on Wednesday and should help the sovereign boost the liquidity in the long end of its curve, said SSA bankers. But some warned that liquidity cuts two ways, meaning the sovereign’s levels could be more sensitive to any bad news that comes its way — although those working on the deal feel the upside far outweighs that risk, writes Craig McGlashan.

Greece has fired the starting gun on its latest debt rehabilitation effort, after launching a roughly €30bn exchange offer for 20 bonds it issued as part of its restructuring in 2012.

CVC and Ardian charged up the leveraged loan deal pipeline with new buyouts of European businesses in Ireland, Greece and Spain this week. A strengthening European economy is likely to attract more, said market participants.

The European high yield bond pipeline was stuffed with an array of mainly sub-benchmark deals this week, after issuance volume hit a historic high.

Anastasios Ioannidis, general manager of global markets at Eurobank Ergasias’ treasury, speaks to GlobalCapital about his bank’s covered bond, the bank’s competitive advantages, plans for non-performing loan sales and how sustained growth can cure Greece’s debt mountain.

The prospect of Greek banks issuing tier two capital early next year was heightened this week after two more of the country's big four institutions successfully printed covered bonds, writes Bill Thornhill.

Korean Housing and Finance Corporation (KHFC) has opened order books in dollars, Muenchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) is set to price a small Swiss Franc deal and Piraeus Bank has finalised terms for its floating rate bond that was mainly placed with supranationals.

Eurobank Ergasias is set to issue its first covered bond some 80bp tight of the Greek sovereign, exactly mirroring the pricing differential that National Bank of Greece (NBG) achieved with its larger trade in the same tenor two weeks earlier.

Eurobank Ergasias has mandated leads for a roadshow, marketing a near replica transaction of National Bank of Greece’s (NBG) three year conditional pass-through that was issued last week.

National Bank of Greece showed this week that a covered bond does not need to have an investment grade rating to be a success. By implication the product has almost unlimited funding potential for a broad swathe of global issuers, particularly those from the emerging markets, writes Bill Thornhill.

Unrated jewellery company Folli Follie debuted in the Swiss franc bond market on Wednesday, having failed in a previous attempt — a sign that retail buyers are becoming more receptive, market participants said.