ING

French postal operator La Poste saved the corporate bond market in Europe from registering a blank week when it sold its first green bond on Friday. Despite the negative sentiment that had pervaded the market throughout the week, the company paid a new issue concession at the lower end of the range paid by deals the previous week.

The Co-operative Group pulled out of a new bond issue and took the rare step of cancelling a tender offer this week, with bankers pinning the blame on the UK’s Brexit brouhaha.

Bankers in the corporate bond market still have a number of deals on their pads to try to execute ahead of the end of 2018. None was successful this week, but that hasn’t dented their ambition.

Gunvor, the Swiss energy and commodities trading company, has signed a $1.68bn revolving credit facility, having increased it during syndication as lenders piled into the transaction.

Nemera, the French maker of drug delivery devices, and UK school operator Cognita are funding their new ownerships in a euro leveraged loan market dominated by acquisition deals.

ING has been busy in the capital markets in recent months, and it took another €4.5bn of senior funding through its operating company on Monday, backed by €7.5bn of demand from investors.

A flurry of Asian bond issuers have ventured out in a bid to wrap up deals ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US on Thursday, even as markets remain on shaky ground.

French toll road operator APRR had been quiet in 2018 by its own standards, but it sold its first corporate bond deal of the year on Wednesday with a €500m long 11 year trade. It paid a low new issue premium for the deal, but lost a number of orders along the way.

The Netherland’s AVR has signed a €100m sustainable credit facility, with the waste to energy company pushing out maturities to up to seven years.

Emirates NBD is set to return to the dollar market, picking banks for a five year benchmark. The trade will be joined in the market by a dollar bond from UAE-based private healthcare provider.

ING held nothing back with the sale of its first green bond at holding company level this week, raising nearly $3bn equivalent across tranches in both euros and dollars.

Two emerging market (EM) sovereigns hit the euro market this week: one debuting and the other returning after a year-long absence. Both deals met with warm receptions, giving some credibility to the notion that euro investors will be happy to stay in EM deals even as quantitative easing (QE) winds up and rates climb.