ING

The autumn term has definitely begun in Europe’s corporate bond market. BMW and Daimler, which launched deals last week, may have been the scholarship swots who returned extra-early, but this week the whole sweaty gang of issuers is back en masse, and making plenty of noise.

BMW and Daimler reopened Europe's corporate bond market on Thursday in emphatic style, reminiscent of the market's usual reopenings after Christmas, when car companies often take the lead. Such a clear and classical restart to issuance, this early in August, is unusual.

Japan telecoms company SoftBank took another step towards its flotation this week by replacing its intergroup credit with a double-B rated leveraged loan. This followed a high-yield bond sale in April with the same purpose.

Russia’s Mechel has signed a $1bn-equivalent loan facility, as the metals and mining group pushes ahead with plans to restructure its debt portfolio by the end of 2018.

The currency crisis in Turkey has prompted analysts to hone in on the balance sheets of European banks, as they look for the first signs of an increase in income volatility following the introduction of the new IFRS 9 accounting standard.

Four former Credit Suisse loans bankers who left the bank earlier this year have resurfaced in the market, according to sources.

Europe’s leveraged finance markets are having a hard time slowing down for their traditional summer break. Investors are willing to keep deploying cash and issuers are responding, with several deals scheduled to be priced in the next two weeks.

French laboratory testing company Eurofins Scientific and Italian tyre company Pirelli have closed Schuldscheine totalling more than €1bn in the past week.

Colin Withers left ING’s EM and high yield syndicate last week after seven years at the bank and shortly before Uzair Burney, a high yield syndicate official from Lloyds, is set to join the desk.

Some fund managers and underwriters are gearing up to keep Europe’s high yield market open during August, as borrowers show more willingness to bring new paper during a traditionally quiet month.

Concerns from some fund managers about the terms of Altice’s new €2.5bn-equivalent bond were swamped by orders from other investors eager to bag single-B paper with a big coupon from a core high yield issuer. After a series of successful investor push-backs on deal terms, the debt laden French telecom proved this week that borrowers still can walk away with loose covenants, writes Victor Jimenez.

The Schuldschein market is back to its active self with over 20 borrowers marketing deals. This is sweet vindication for arrangers, who’ve had to deal with concerns after borrowers Steinhoff and Carillion fell from grace at the end of 2017 and start of 2018.